One person who did not show up at Garden State Park on Jersey Derby day was Angel Cordero, the jockey who had ridden Spend A Buck to victory in the Cherry Hill Mile, the Garden State Stakes and the Kentucky Derby. He had committed to ride Track Barron at Belmont Park on Memorial Day.

There was more to the story, according to Brennan.

"I was going to send my helicopter up there to get him," he said. "I had done it before with Willie Shoemaker and a lot of other jockeys. We wanted to pick up Cordero and have him swoop in and ride in the Jersey Derby. But [the New York Racing Association] was so mad at me that they wouldn't let us land the helicopter up in New York and they would not release him from any of his mounts."

Track Barron finished third in the Metropolitan Mile at Belmont and Cordero earned $4,000 for the mount. Laffit Pincay replaced him on Spend A Buck and earned $260,000 after winning the Jersey Derby. Cordero later blasted Diaz for not paying him any of the bonus money.

"I win three of the four and get nothing," he told the New York Post. "They should have at least given me part of it."

Spend A Buck's last run at Garden State Park would not be an easy one. He went off as a 1-20 favorite against a strong field. Creme Fraiche finished second and went on to win the Belmont Stakes 12 days later.

Two strides out of the gate, Spend A Buck stumbled and the overflow crowd gasped. For several strides he was crowded by Purple Mountain. Instead of being out front from the start as he was in his previous three races, he was challenged to the finish.

"I thought he was a beat horse" a quarter mile from the finish line, Gambolati said.

Creme Fraiche was ahead of Spend A Buck by a nose as the horses entered the stretch and El Basco rallied to be among the leaders as they headed for the finish line. Pincay used his whip three times and Spend A Buck responded with a $2.6 million final sprint to the finish, beating Creme Fraiche by a neck.

It would stand as the richest single payday in horse racing history until the local, lovable Smarty Jones won a $5 million bonus from Oaklawn Park for winning the Kentucky Derby and two other races at the Arkansas track.

Spend A Buck "showed extraordinary courage in that race because he was very beatable that day," Brennan said. I think the strength of Laffit Pincay carried him across the line."

http://articles.philly.com/2015-05-26/sports/62630038_1_cherry-hill-mile-jersey-derby-garden-state-stakes