Coinage goes for big green in purse-enhanced Nownownow

The appropriately named Coinage heads the closing-day feature at Monmouth Park, the Nownownow Stakes.

It required plenty of coin, $450,000, to acquire Coinage at a yearling auction in 2020, and the colt runs for a whopping $500,000 purse in the Nownownow, a one-mile grass race for 2-year-olds.

The Nownownow, named for the winner of the inaugural 2007 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, run at Monmouth, began the meet as a $150,000 race but got a massive increase when Monmouth raised purses across the board in July.

Coinage is one of 10 entrants in the Nownownow, which includes four maidens, two each from the stables of trainers Todd Pletcher and Mike Maker. Each trainer said Thursday they intended to run both horses that were entered.

Among the 10, only Coinage has won a stakes, having gone wire to wire on Sept. 1 at Saratoga in the With Anticipation, his turf and two-turn debut. Coinage is by Tapit and is the first foal produced by the Medaglia d’Oro mare, Bar of Gold, who ended her career winning the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Bar of Gold, however, had run three good turf-route races the summer before her Breeders’ Cup victory. And Coinage, who had a New York-bred maiden win from three dirt sprints to start his career, worked encouragingly on turf before the With Anticipation.

“He’s a horse that I kind of always thought was special and to that point he’d disappointed me,” trainer Mark Casse said. Casse was preparing to be inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame on Aug. 6 when Coinage breezed for the first time on grass. “I saw video of it, and I was like, ‘Whoa.’ At that point, we kind of figured what he liked.”

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Coinage made an easy lead in the With Anticipation and took advantage, closing out his final 2 1/2 furlongs in a recorded 28.10 seconds. There appears to be more pace entered in the Nownownow, but Casse believes his horse can settle behind rivals. Junior Alvarado comes in to take the mount.

Another New York-bred, Dakota Gold, makes his stakes, two-turn, and turf debut Sunday following a well-regarded Saratoga debut victory on Sept. 2. Dakota Gold was entered for grass but won an off-turf, 5 1/2-furlong sprint by nearly five lengths, earning a robust 83 Beyer Speed Figure.

“He works like he’s better on turf – had some really nice works on the grass and his action suggests turf,” said Danny Gargan, who trains Dakota Gold, a son of Freud, for Reeves Thoroughbred Racing. Gargan said Dakota Gold finishes his workouts like a horse who can handle a route of ground. “If he runs one-two Sunday we can think about the Breeders’ Cup.”

Pletcher’s pair, Sweeping Giant and Royal Spirit, ran two-three in the same Saratoga turf-route maiden race, won by slow-pace setting Martini’nmoonshine. Sweeping Giant got an outside stalking trip and lost more ground than pace-tracking Royal Spirit, outkicking Royal Spirit through the final half-furlong, but Sweeping Giant already had raced while Royal Spirit was making his first start.

Sweeping Giant “kind of kept grinding away,” Pletcher said, suggesting he’ll ultimately prefer distances longer than one mile. Royal Spirit “raced a little green” in his trainer’s assessment and showed spark when Pletcher worked him for the first time in blinkers on Sept. 17. “He’s a horse that’s always trained pretty well,” Pletcher said.

The Maker-trained City at Night ran respectably in a rich Kentucky Downs maiden mile Sept. 5, finishing second of 10 after making an early move. Stablemate Pure Panic won his only grass race, an Ellis Park maiden sprint, and was rained off turf last out in the Skidmore Stakes at Saratoga, where he was second. Monmouth maiden turf-route winner There Are No Words should set the pace, while locally based Grooms All Bizness evinced ability in a turf-sprint maiden win Aug. 9.

◗ The eight-horse Smoke Glacken, a $100,000 dirt sprint for 2-year-olds, didn’t draw any top-shelf East Coast talent. Speaking, a debut winner of a New Jersey-bred maiden race; Swift Tap, who cuts back to a sprint following a fading fifth in the one-mile Sapling; and Parx debut winner Practical Coach are the three favorites.