The Money Dance, jockey Morales make Indiana grand

The Money Dance may be best known for collecting bonus money, but he collected the big money Wednesday afternoon at Indiana Grand.

The Money Dance, who broke his maiden on the final day of this year’s Oaklawn meeting, was a 3

1/2-length winner of the $150,000 Governor’s Stakes for registered Indiana-bred 3-year-olds. The Money Dance provided Edgar Morales, Oaklawn’s leading apprentice jockey this year, with his first career stakes victory.

The victory snapped a threerace losing streak — all stakes — for The Money Dance, who collected $113,520 for his maiden special weights victory April 14 at Oaklawn and clearing his first allowance condition May 3 at Belmont Park. That total included

$18,720 in bonus money.

The Money earned an additional $4,860 through Oaklawn’s Lasix-free Bonus Program, which offered a 10 percent hike to the winner’s share of the purse for horses who won without running on the anti-bleeder medication. The Money Dance was the last of a single-season record 12 Lasixfree winners since the program began in 2015. Oaklawn President Louis Cella said the bonus program will return next year.

The Money Dance received an additional $13,860 for his victory at Belmont because he had made his previous start at Oaklawn. Under the New York Racing Association’s “Ship and Win” bonus program — Aqueduct spring meet and Belmont spring/summer meet — starters who made their last start at Oaklawn received a “30 percent purse bonus applied to a horse’s purse earnings” and a $1,500 shipping stipend. Stakes races weren’t part of the program.

In the Governor’s Stakes, The Money Dance ran a mile and 70 yards over a sloppy surface in

1:42.41 and paid $7 as the 5-2 favorite.

Co-owned by Penny Lauer and trained by husband Mike, The Money Dance has a 3-2-1 record from 12 lifetime starts and earnings of $254,222. The son of Jimmy Creed continues to race without Lasix.

The Lauers also won the

$150,000 Indiana First Lady Stakes for registered Indiana-bred

3-year-old fillies Wednesday at Indiana Grand with heavily favored Flurry ($2.80), who trained this year at Oaklawn.

Morales won 17 races at Oaklawn, the highest single-season

total for an apprentice jockey in Hot Springs since Freddie Lenclud’s 24 in 2010.

Calumet Farm’s Vexatious, third in the Grade 3 $400,000 Fantasy Stakes for 3-year-old fillies in 2017 at Oaklawn, recorded her first career stakes victory in the $75,000 CTT and TOC Wednesday at Del Mar. Vexatious, under Rafael Bejarano, ran 1 3/8 miles over a firm turf course in 2:16.06 and paid $7 as the 5-2 second choice.

Vexatious was a length winner for Hall of Fame trainer Neil Drysdale. She is out of millionaire Dream of Summer, who won Oaklawn’s Grade 1 $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap for older fillies and mares in 2005.

My Mandate, a 2-year-old Strong Mandate ridgling out of Oaklawn stakes winner Jan’s Perfect Star, finished second in his career debut, a 5-furlong maiden special weights event, Sunday at Del Mar. The Arkansas-bred Jan’s Perfect Star was a 12-length debut winner at the 2013 Oaklawn meeting before beating state-breds in the $60,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Stakes in her next start.

Brad Cox, fourth in Oaklawn’s trainer standings this year, has already set a yearly best for purse earnings, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. Cox has $8,874,746 —sixth nationally — to eclipse his previous best of $8,833,028, set last year.

Cox sent out 2017 Oaklawn maiden winner Pinch Hit to finish third in the Grade 3 $100,000 Groupie Doll Stakes last Sunday at Ellis Park and is scheduled to start Sassy Sienna in the Grade 3 $100,000 Monmouth Oaks Saturday at Monmouth Park. Sassy Sienna won the Fantasy on April 13.