Mr Money Bags gets chance to shine in Iowa Derby

Mr Money Bags’s first start outside Louisiana and Texas ended badly, with a broken rein costing him all chance in the Pat Day Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard. Trainer Mike Netherlin thinks the racing public will get a look Friday night in the Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows at what he’s been seeing for months.

“I think you’re going to see something special,” said Netherlin, whose best horse to date was Kip Deville. “I’m high on him. He’s a freak of nature.”

Mr Money Bags is one of a dozen entrants in the $250,000 Iowa Derby at 1 1/16 miles on dirt. Visitant, a California shipper, is the 7-2 morning line favorite with Night Ops, runner up in the $300,000 Oaklawn Invitational, listed at a reasonable 9-2.

Mr Money Bags is 6-1 on the line but in Netherlin’s eyes a shorter price than that. The Texas-bred has dominated regional competition and Netherlin puts a rare loss Jan. 5 at Delta down to a lack of fitness following a layoff. As for the Pat Day Mile, toss it.

“The horse on the inside bolted, hit him right on the shoulder, and in the first jump the bridle rein was gone,” said Netherlin, who trains Mr Money Bags, a son of Silver City, for breeder Roy Cobb. “We thank the lord nothing happened to him.”

Mr Money Bags has ample early speed but “is no run-off” and rates kindly even when he leads, Netherlin said.

Winning Number, drawn on the rail for his route and stakes debut, looks like a pace player with several other front-end types drawn toward the middle.

Visitant led before finishing third behind the Bob Baffert-trained colts Mucho Gusto and Roadster in the Grade 3 Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita, but setting the pace was never the plan, according to trainer John Martin.

“Nobody else wanted the lead,” he said.

The Affirmed marked Visitant’s dirt debut following four good performances over the Golden Gate Fields synthetic surface, including a win over subsequent Queen’s Plate hero One Bad Boy.

“It’s back in 19 days, but this is a race I really wanted to make,” said Martin.

Night Ops has two wins and his second to Laughing Fox in the Oaklawn Invitational from the three starts he’s made for trainer Brad Cox. Cox worked Night Ops with Ohio Derby winner Owendale last month and “couldn’t say who was better” in the drill.

“I think he’s a really good horse,” Cox said.

Top Line Growth invades from Maryland, where romps in a maiden race and a statebred-restricted allowance bookend a fifth-place finish in the Sir Barton Stakes.

Lady Apple, Ulele top Oaks

She’s A Julie exceeded the standard for an Iowa Oaks winner in 2018 with a Grade 1 placing last summer and a Grade 1 win this spring, and trainer Steve Asmussen might have another better-than-par filly for this year’s Grade 3, $200,000 Oaks.

Lady Apple won the Grade 3 Fantasy Stakes on April 12 at Oaklawn Park, and while well beaten finished third of 14 in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks. She’s the likely Iowa Oaks favorite over Ulele in a seven-horse field that appears to have a formidable top two.

The other five in this 1 1/16-mile contest, all last-out winners, aren’t hapless. Beach Getaway won an off-turf renewal of the Northbound Pride Oaks at Canterbury; Sold It captured the California Oaks in her most recent start; Sweet Diane, third in the Fair Grounds Oaks in March, was a comfortable winner of a Churchill allowance race; Taylor’s Spirit is perfect in four local starts, including two stakes wins this meet; and Scatrattleandroll just aired in a Laurel allowance race.

Still, Lady Apple, drawn in post 2 with Ricardo Santana, and Ulele, who breaks from post 1 under Florent Geroux, look like key combatants. Lady Apple showed precocity as a 2-year-old last season and made great strides this winter and spring at Oaklawn after returning from an extended layoff. A May foal, she won a maiden sprint and an allowance route before the Fantasy and might already have hit her spring peak by the time the May 3 Oaks, her most recent start, rolled around.

“She’s a very young filly to have those races as tight as they were,” Asmussen said. “I’m anxious to see how much this little break has helped. Her recent form touches on how good she may become.”

Ulele came around too late this year to make the Oaks, but sprang from a Keeneland allowance win April 4 to a closing, ground-saving second-place finish behind Point of Honor in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan on May 17 at Pimlico.

“Time between races seems to be a good thing with her and I’ve tried the same pattern,” trainer Brad Cox said. “She had a fantastic breeze last weekend.”

Do Share tops Sprint

Trainer Mike Maker might be best known for his long-distance turf horses, but he has a sharp dirt sprinter named Do Share as the likely favorite for the $100,000 Iowa Sprint.

Do Share broke from the rail, was bumped at the start, but still rallied to finish fourth of 11 on May 4 in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes, a race won by the mighty Mitole. Do Share was a vet scratch just before the start of the True North on June 8 at Belmont, but returned to the work tab June 19 when he drilled a half-mile at the Churchill Downs training center.

Share the Upside, second to Whitmore earlier this year in the Hot Springs Stakes, and Seven Trumpets, who makes his first start since the Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita in December, are the other prime contenders.