Since claiming Money Run for $40,000 in June 2024, trainer Peter Miller has gradually transformed the gelding from a middling sprinter to a seasoned route runner. The culmination of that process could come at Colonial Downs on Thursday, when the 6-year-old will stretch out to 1 3/8 miles in the $100,000 Golden Horseshoe Handicap. “Even though he’s by Runhappy, who was a champion sprinter, he really seems to like going long,” Miller said. “We’re thinking the farther, the better. He’s a horse that pretty much needs the lead, but he’s very, very fast, so we’ll let him ramble.” In his first four starts for Miller, all West Coast sprints, Money Run lost by a combined margin of 101 1/4 lengths. Miller was forced to consider a change, and the gelding instantly improved to win two races when stretched out to a mile last September. “California speed is a little different, and he couldn’t quite make the lead sprinting there,” Miller said. “I said to the owner, ‘If we can’t make the lead sprinting, let’s try him going long.’ We did and it worked, and it’s kept working. Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good.” :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Money Run will return to stakes company in the sharpest form of his career after two commanding 1 1/8-mile efforts at Oaklawn Park. In December, he steamrolled a 12-horse starter-allowance field by 3 1/4 lengths, earning a 93 Beyer Speed Figure in a gate-to-wire score. On Feb. 6, he won in eerily similar fashion in another 12-horse field at the same level, kicking clear by 2 1/2 lengths while carrying 124 pounds. He will carry 117 in the Golden Horseshoe, his lightest assignment since September 2023. Jockey Ramon Vazquez, arguably best known for his work aboard marathon stakes winner Lone Rock, has ridden Money Run in his last two victories and will follow him to Colonial for his first try at 1 3/8 miles. Stowaway, a 7-year-old gelding trained by Whit Beckman, holds an obvious class edge in the Golden Horseshoe, having finished fifth in the Grade 3 Mineshaft at Fair Grounds last month. Beckman said the 8 1/4-length defeat to Hit Show came down to unfavorable track conditions for his closer. Before the Mineshaft, Stowaway nearly sprung a 24-1 upset in the $100,000 Tenacious, coming up three-quarters of a length short in a three-horse blanket finish on Dec. 20. He earned a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort at 1 1/16 miles. “I’ve always wanted to get that kind of race at a mile and an eighth, maybe a little bit further,” Beckman said. “It’s just tough to find those races. A mile and three-eighths is a pretty big distance jump from a mile and a sixteenth, but I’m confident the horse’s pedigree and running style should set him up for a good performance.” All eight runners in the field will be attempting the distance for the first time, but Digital Ops is the only one with credibility going longer for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. Last summer, the 5-year-old stretched all the way out to 1 3/4 miles at Saratoga, finishing second by a length in the $150,000 Birdstone. The hearty route runner was not the same after that near-miss in New York, as he wrapped up his 2025 campaign with a 22 3/4-length defeat in the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup at Parx. His 5-year-old debut did not go much better, as the Joseph trainee came back to lose a Gulfstream Park allowance by 32 1/4 lengths. He bounced back slightly to finish second in an allowance at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 25, and Joseph will add blinkers in search of more progress at Colonial. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.