Mr. Money, Street Band might be rewarded with a day at the Spa

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The dominating winners of the marquee races at Indiana Grand last Saturday night both returned to Churchill Downs in good order as their connections now ponder whether to run next in a Grade 1 at Saratoga.

Mr. Money, who earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Indiana Derby by 2 1/2 lengths, has the Aug. 24 Travers as a possible next start, while Street Band, a 3 1/2-length winner of the Indiana Oaks with an 87 Beyer, could go next in the Aug. 17 Alabama.

Bret Calhoun, trainer of Mr. Money, said he will factor in the results of the upcoming Haskell and Jim Dandy before deciding whether to send Mr. Money to the Travers.

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Calhoun also is considering sending Mr. Money to the Grade 3, $500,000 West Virginia Derby on Aug. 3 at Mountaineer, and the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 21 at Parx Racing.

“That’s the $1.2 million question, isn’t it?” said Calhoun, referring to the Travers purse. “We’ve got to decide if we want to make a fairly quick turn-back in the West Virginia Derby, which would give us seven weeks to the Pennsylvania Derby.

“That’s one route. He seems like he bounced out of it well, so the possibility of running back at Mountaineer is there. Or, we can go straight to the Travers. We just don’t know yet. We’ll watch him closely the next two weeks, and in the meantime we have a couple of important races to watch.”

Meanwhile, trainer Larry Jones will need to decide whether to run Street Band in the $600,000 Alabama or just wait for the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion on Sept. 21 at Parx. The Indiana Oaks was Street Band’s first race since she finished seventh in the Kentucky Oaks.

“The Alabama is a possibility,” Jones said. “I believe she can get the mile and a quarter, but I don’t know if there’ll be enough pace in there for her to tuck in. I don’t want her running off out front and kind of get lost.

“The Cotillion is what we definitely want to do. I wouldn’t mind training straight to it. [The Indiana Oaks] was over two months from the Kentucky Oaks. She finished very well and came back to the barn as if she wasn’t done. It’s not like I emptied the barrel on her. If we decided to train into the Cotillion, I wouldn’t be afraid of that.”

Baze tops Ellis standings

After the first seven cards at Ellis Park in western Kentucky, Tyler Baze leads the jockey standings with nine wins, all but two of them for Steve Asmussen, whose 9-for-43 mark led all trainers in wins and starts.

Baze, a top-five rider on the Southern California circuit for years, has four mounts on the Wednesday opener at Del Mar but will continue to ride regularly at Ellis. He is named to ride five races Friday and eight Saturday at Ellis.

Later post time Friday

First post at Ellis Park on Friday is 2:50 p.m. Central, two hours later than normal.

The lone allowance, a $51,000 first-level turf route for fillies and mares, is race 8 on a nine-race card scheduled to conclude at 6:40.

The Friday cards of Aug. 9 and 23 also will begin at 2:50.

The card will be preceded by a media conference introducing principals in the track’s new ownership, Ellis Entertainment, a subsidiary of Laguna Development Co. of New Mexico.