Coinage and jockey Luis Saez head to the winner’s circle after the Palm Beach. Lauren King/Gulfstream Park Photo
By Joe Clancy
Generations. At Keeneland January in 2000, Chester Broman spent $1 million on unraced broodmare Confidently and has been rewarded by a parade of quality horses in the 22 years since.
Confidently produced modest runners early, then struck with graded winner Khancord Kid (born in 2007) and 10-time winner Crackerjack Jones (2010). Khancord Kid won three times including the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride Stakes before joining the broodmare band for Broman and his wife Mary at their Chestertown Farm in Chestertown. The daughter of Lemon Drop Kid got it right the first time as her first foal Bar Of Gold won the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and three other stakes en route to $1.5 million in earnings.
And Bar Of Gold’s first foal, Coinage, extended the family excellence by winning Saturday’s $125,000 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
After a slow break, the 3-year-old Tapit colt begrudgingly listened to jockey Luis Saez and stayed out of a pace duel while rank and inside, just behind Bueno Bueno and Mom’s Moon, through the early stages.
“It was not the plan,” Saez said of the early cover. “The plan was to go to the lead but everything changed when the gates opened. He relaxed pretty good and he made a big move at the three-eighths pole, top of the stretch. He’s pretty game. He wanted to get there first. We were just waiting for room, and as soon as he gave me that kick I was just riding him because he was running pretty good.”
Asked for run exiting the far turn, Coinage advanced from fourth, leaned four wide and passed Main Event and Bueno Bueno in deep stretch to prevail by a neck in 1:36.12 for a mile on firm turf. A stubborn Main Event finished second with Bueno Bueno third in the eight-horse field. Sent off as the 5-2 second choice, Coinage paid $6.80 while winning for the third time in eight lifetime starts while pushing his career earnings to $289,625 for trainer Mark Casse.
The chestnut started his career against fellow New York-breds last spring at Belmont Park, finishing third in his debut and then winning a 5 1/2-furlong maiden race by 7 3/4 lengths. Third in Saratoga’s Rick Violette Stakes going 6 furlongs at Saratoga in July, Coinage moved to the turf and stretched to 1 1/16 miles in Saratoga’s Grade 3 With Anticipation Stakes – posting a mild upset at 6-1. He’s been on the turf ever since, a third in Monmouth Park’s Nownownow Stakes last fall, a ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in November at Del Mar and a season-opening third in Gulfstream’s Grade 3 Kitten’s Joy Feb. 5 at Gulfstream.
The Bromans sold Coinage for $450,000 at Keeneland September in 2020, but stayed in for a piece with purchaser DJ Stable and were on hand to meet their homebred in the winner’s circle Saturday.
Impressed by Coinage’s early training, Casse went to Plan B with the turf tries last year.
“We knew he was good at something,” the trainer said after the With Anticipation.
They just weren’t sure what until then.
“Five months ago I was telling the Bromans that I thought this horse was something special,” Casse said then. “Then we brought him up [to Saratoga] . . . he never showed the same as I’d seen before. So, I look at his breeding and his works, and I’m thinking grass just might be the fit. I’ve said this before, but I see training as a puzzle. And what you do is move the pieces around until you figure out where they fit.”
Coinage and turf fit together like Lego pieces.
As for Bar Of Gold, she has produced a Justify colt who sold to DJ Stable for $825,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale; a full-brother to Coinage foaled in 2021 and was expecting a Quality Road foal for this year.
