Win for the Money Seeking Return to Form in Fort Lauderdale (G2)
At 0h02, on December 20, 2024 • By Gulfstream
Three months after becoming a Grade 1 winner in Canada, Live Oak Plantation’s 5-year-old homebred gelding Win for the Money returns to South Florida seeking to rediscover that form in Saturday’s $215,000 Fort Lauderdale (G2) at Gulfstream Park.
The 68th running of the Fort Lauderdale for 3-year-olds and up, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the grass, is the fourth of five stakes, three graded, worth $825,000 in purses on an 11-race Pegasus Preview Day program that begins at 12:20 p.m.
Named for the famed coastal city 14 miles north of Gulfstream, the Fort Lauderdale serves as the local prep for the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1) Jan. 25. Also on Saturday’s program are the $165,000 Harlan’s Holiday (G3), a prep for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1), and the $165,000 Suwannee River (G3), a prep for the $500,000 Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf (G2).
Win for the Money, trained by U.S. and Canadian Hall of Famer Mark Casse, has raced exclusively on turf this year after running primarily on synthetic surfaces over his first three seasons. The son of 2016 Holy Bull (G2) and Fountain of Youth (G2) winner Mohaymen kicked off his campaign with popular 6 ¾-length triumph in Gulfstream’s 1 1/16-mile Mr. Steele May 25.
Win for the Money matched a career-best speed figure with his rallying 1 ½-length upset victory in the Woodbine Mile (G1) Sept. 14 at odds of 13-1, an effort that earned him a shot at the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) Nov. 2 at Del Mar, his most recent start, where he raced wide early and tired late to be last of 10.
“I think you probably just draw a line through it,” Casse’s assistant trainer, Nick Tomlinson, said. “I think it’s hard really for any horse to go out to California because it’s a long ship. He’s come back and trained really well coming into this, so we’re hoping that he bounces back into the form that he had in the Woodbine Mile.”
Last fall, Win for the Money placed in a pair of graded-stakes over Woodbine’s all-weather surface, and this year he ran fourth by less than five lengths in the Wise Dan (G2) and second as the favorite in the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Mile. Each of his last three starts have come at the mile distance, but last year he raced as far as 1 ½ miles when third in the Valedictory (G3) and 1 ¼ miles when fifth in the Arlington Million (G1), the latter on grass.
“I don’t think [distance] should be a problem for him, honestly,” Tomlinson said. “We had him in the Arlington Million which is a mile and a quarter at Colonial. Things didn’t really go our way that day, but I don’t think distance is an issue. Hopefully things play out well and we can get the job done.”
Dylan Davis, making his 2024-2025 Championship Meet debut over the weekend, is named to ride from Post 5 in a field of nine as the narrow 5-2 program favorite.
