Spend A Buck May Take Money and Run in Jersey

As soon as Spend A Buck answered one question Saturday at Churchill Downs, his owner, Dennis Diaz, was faced with another.

The first question was whether Spend A Buck, a sprinter, would still be running at the end of the 1-mile Kentucky Derby.

Spend A Buck answered that one by leading from wire to wire and winning by 5 lengths.

Even before he had a chance to stop and smell the roses, Diaz was considering the second question: Will Spend A Buck chase the second leg of the Triple Crown in the May 18 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico or run instead in the Jersey Derby nine days later at Garden State Park?

Considering that only four Kentucky Derby winners in the last 31 years have failed to enter the Preakness, the odds would appear to be with the more prestigious race.

But prestige is an intangible.

The $2.6 million that Spend A Buck can earn by winning the Jersey Derby is real.

So real that it seems unreal.

Here’s how Spend A Buck can become Make a Bundle:

When the year began, officials at Garden State Park, a track on the make, announced a $1-million bonus for any horse that could win the Jersey Derby and two of three other races, the Cherry Hill Mile and the Garden State Stakes, both at Garden State, and the Kentucky Derby.

Any horse that won all four races, they said, would earn a $2-million bonus.

On April 6, Spend A Buck won the Cherry Hill Mile by 10 1/2 lengths.

Two weeks later, he won the Garden State Stakes by 9 1/2 lengths.

As a result, he was guaranteed a chance to win the $1-million bonus in the Jersey Derby.

His victory in the Kentucky Derby guarantees him a chance to win the $2-million bonus, along with the $600,000 first-place money in the Jersey Derby, if he enters the Jersey Derby.

That became a big if Saturday.

After the race, Chick Lang said that Spend A Buck should run in the Preakness.

That’s hardly a surprise, considering that Lang is general manager of the Pimlico Race Course.

“The only thing I can tell you is that Spend A Buck is the only horse in America eligible to be the Triple Crown winner (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes),” Lang said. “If he wins the Triple Crown, the horse might be worth $15 million.

“I wasn’t good in mathematics as a kid, but you don’t have to be that intelligent to know that there’s a really big difference between $2 million and $15 million.”

Lang was figuring the worth of Spend A Buck in syndication fees if he wins the Triple Crown.

He later decided he liked the sound of $50 million better.

“The Triple Crown is the ultimate prize,” Lang said. “They’re looking at $50 million if they win the Triple Crown.”

Of course, that’s another big if.

But that’s the problem facing Diaz and Spend A Buck’s trainer, Cam Gambolati.

“When are you leaving?” Gambolati asked Lang after Saturday’s race.

“Tomorrow morning,” Lang said.

“Come by and see me before you leave,” Gambolati said.

Gambolati wouldn’t give any hints afterward about what he will say to Lang.

But he did say there was no chance that the colt will run both races.

“You can’t abuse a horse that way,” he said. “That’s only nine days between races.”

The feeling here Saturday among insiders was that Spend A Buck will go to the Preakness if the reported sale of a half-interest in the horse goes through. The investor is believed to be Will Farish, a Kentucky owner and breeder who probably would favor a traditional course for the horse.

On the other hand, Spend A Buck feels at home on the fast track at Garden State. Also, he will have nine more days to rest if he runs there. And it’s a shorter race than the Preakness.

This is exactly what Garden State Park’s president, Tom Brennan, had in mind when he established the bonus. He couldn’t have written a script that would have brought his track any more attention.

The track needs it.

After being destroyed by fire in 1977, the Cherry Hill, N.J., track was reopened this year at a cost of $170 million.

It hasn’t been very successful so far, but it would be a moral victory for the track if it can steal the Kentucky Derby winner from the Preakness.

The Preakness was a natural target, considering the lack of support Maryland racing has received from the state government in recent years. That appears to be changing as the racing industry in Maryland probably will receive the tax break it has requested.

But it may be too late for this year’s Preakness.

Lang said Saturday there is no chance the purse could be boosted to make the race more attractive for Spend A Buck.

He wasn’t angry at Diaz or Gambolati, as he was at Gato Del Sol’s trainer, Eddie Gregson, when he decided to bypass the Preakness after winning the 1982 Kentucky Derby.

Gregson’s decision wasn’t based on a bigger pot of gold at the end of another rainbow but on his belief that the Preakness was too short a distance for a late bloomer such as Gato Del Sol.

“This isn’t good for racing,” Lang said Saturday of Garden State’s bonus incentive. “Everybody else in America wants Spend A Buck to run the Preakness. It’s tradition.

“There’s a mystique to the Triple Crown. But we may be deprived of a chance to see this horse win it.

“Garden State is like George Steinbrenner trying to buy the World Series. It’s not right.”