Cordero Opts Not to Ride Spend a Buck : Jockey Honors Earlier Agreement, Passes Up Jersey Derby Riches

Angel Cordero told trainer Cam Gambolati Tuesday that he won’t be able to ride heavily favored Spend a Buck in the Jersey Derby next Monday at Garden State Park, creating a possible $260,000 payday for Laffit Pincay, who will replace Cordero on the Kentucky Derby winner.

If Spend a Buck wins the Jersey Derby, he will earn a $2 million bonus and $600,000 as the winner’s share of the purse. Because jockeys usually get 10% of a horse’s earnings, Pincay is in a position to collect a record payoff for a rider in one race.

Spend a Buck is eligible for Garden State’s $2 million bonus because he has won three other races--the Cherry Hill Handicap and the Garden State Stakes here and the Kentucky Derby.

Cordero gave up the mount on Spend a Buck in order to honor a long-standing commitment to ride Track Barron, who is running in the $250,000 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park the same day as the Jersey Derby. Cordero reportedly has an agreement with Peter Brant, the owner of Track Barron, that will give him a lifetime breeding right to Track Barron if he rides him the rest of the year.

Cordero would earn an estimated $20,000 if Track Barron won the Metropolitan, a difference of $240,000 if he were successful with Spend a Buck in the Jersey Derby.

“Angel owed it to the Track Barron people to ride their horse and I understand,” Gambolati said. “After that, Laffit was our first choice. It was between him and Angel last year when we decided to replace Charlie Hussey with a name rider, and the only reason we chose Angel was that both he and the horse were on the East Coast.”

Pincay could almost double his year’s purses with a $2.6 million Jersey Derby win. Purses, rather than total wins, are considered to be a better barometer for judging a jockey’s performance. Pincay, who has led the nation six times, has been trailing Chris McCarron by about $700,000 in recent listings by the Daily Racing Form.

Gambolati said that Pincay would be at Garden State Friday morning to work Spend a Buck a half-mile, the colt’s final tuneup for the 1-mile Jersey Derby.

Although Spend a Buck will be an odds-on choice Monday, as many as ten 3-year-olds could oppose him. Besides $600,000 for the winner, the $1 million purse also includes payoffs of $200,000, $110,000, $60,000 and $30,000 for second through fifth places.

Horses mentioned as possible starters include Creme Fraiche and El Basco. Creme Fraiche won the Kentucky Derby Trial at Churchill Downs in his last start, and El Basco was the winner of the recent Withers Stakes at Belmont Park.

Pincay will be at Belmont Saturday to ride Stephan’s Odyssey, the second-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, in the Peter Pan Stakes, a traditional prep for the Belmont Stakes, scheduled for June 8.

Gambolati would not comment on whether Pincay would retain the mount on Spend a Buck beyond the Jersey Derby. Although Spend a Buck is not expected to run in the Belmont, Gambolati wouldn’t eliminate the possibility.

“You can’t look at two races at the same time,” Gambolati said. “We’re just concerned about the Jersey Derby for the time being.”

In another development, Don MacBeth will be replaced aboard Chief’s Crown when the colt runs in the Belmont Stakes. Roger Laurin, who trains Chief’s Crown, was satisfied with the ride the horse got for his second-place finish behind Tank’s Prospect in last Saturday’s Preakness, but Andrew Rosen, one of the colt’s owners, apparently wanted to make a change.

Cordero rode Chief’s Crown in his first race, but MacBeth took over after that and won 8 of 11 starts, including wins in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last year and the Flamingo and the Blue Grass this year.

“I knew I was under the gun for not hitting the horse enough through the stretch of the Preakness,” MacBeth said. “But I was criticized for hitting him too much in the Flamingo. He was running his butt off in the Preakness, and I didn’t think he needed to be hit.”