By Dick Jerardi
Double Your Money was claimed for $30,000 on Oct. 18, 2024, at Keeneland. Doubling that money would have been a good thing in a claiming world that can be harrowing. Well, after Double Your Money won Saturday’s $224,943 Claiming Crown Jewel at Churchill Downs Saturday for his fifth win (to go along with seven seconds) from 13 starts since the claim, Double Your Money has earned more than 10 times that claiming price – $331,150.
“Besides the race itself, it was a great experience overall, very nice people there, very hospitable, great scenery, great track,” winning trainer and co-owner Ben Dunn, who was making his first visit to Churchill Downs, said. “Got to be there in the morning, watch them train, see my horse in the barn, get to see Brendan Walsh’s barn, Brad Cox, (Ken) McPeek, guys I look up to.”
Dunn, 25, and partner Chris Mancusi have made quite a splash in their nascent horse-owning careers, with four wins, a second, and a third in just six starts. And Dunn, who took over the training of Double Your Money from his mother Felissa Dunn, has now started just six horses as a trainer with five wins and a second, that by 16-1 Double Your Money in the Greenwood Cup on Pennsylvania Derby Day.
Double Your Money has been ridden in his last four starts by Parx regular Melvis Gonzalez. The jockey found himself in a bit of an uncomfortable position in the Jewel when 9-1 Double Your Money (normally on or near the lead) was eighth midway through the 1 1/8-mile race. No matter. Double Your Money emerged from a cavalry charge in the stretch to win by a comfortable 1 1/2 lengths.
“Before I watch my races, I always have an idea of how the race is going to play out in my head,” Dunn said.
The trainer thought speed was good Saturday and told the jockey to go for the lead if he could get there. Coming off two longer races, the horse just didn’t have enough speed to make the top. No matter.
“Before the stretch, he made a really good move to get off the rail,” Dunn said. And once the horse got clear sailing in the stretch, it was over in a blink.
What was it like being in the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs?
“It’s a surreal experience,” Dunn said. “You ship the horse there and you want to win the race and then you see him cross the wire. We all woke up the next morning and had to pinch ourselves.”
Prior to coming to Parx and the Dunns’ barn, Double Your Money had mostly been running in grass sprints with minimal success. Switched to races on dirt and around two turns, Double Your Money has become a consistent money maker, with the Jewel and its $127,840 first prize for winning a race limited to horses that had run for a claiming price of $35,000 or less in 2024-25, easily the best payday yet.
“We were looking dirt and thinking two turns (after the claim),” Dunn said.
The future? Dunn thinks maybe Grade III stakes and the farther the better. The Greenwood Cup on Pennsylvania Derby Day 2026 is a long-range goal.
Double Your Money was not the only horse with Parx connections to run well on Claiming Crown Day.
Freedom Road, who is stabled at Laurel Park with trainer Ricky Silliman, had a seven-race win streak last year that ended when he was second by a neck in his Claiming Crown race at Churchill. The horse was ridden during that run, which included several stops at Parx, by Parx regular Andrew Wolfsont. Well, this time ridden by the great Irad Ortiz, Jr., Freedom Road lost the CC Iron Horse (for horses that had raced for a claiming price of $8,000 or less) by that same neck after another heroic performance.
Pink Rose, stabled at Parx for trainer Ernesto Padilla-Preciado and owned by JKX Racing, finished third in the CC Glass Slipper (for horses that had run for a claiming price of $12,500 or less in 2024-25).
So, a first, second and third for Parx/Parx adopted horses at Churchill Downs on the day that could best be described as the Breeders’ Cup for claiming horses.
