Spend a Buck

Spend a Buck was sired by Buckaroo{{cite web|url=https://www.equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=Horse&refno=909360®istry=T&rbt=TB |title=Spend a Buck |publisher=Equibase Co LLC |date=2012-10-13 |accessdate=2021-07-31}} out of the dam Belle de Jour. Through his son Einstein (BRZ), he is now the primary source for the Buckpasser sire line in the United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/113672/buckpasser-and-his-influence-on-the-breed|title=Buckpasser and his influence on the breed|publisher=The Blood-Horse|access-date=May 8, 2016|author=Peters, Anne|date=June 20, 2014}} Spend a Buck is inbred 5x5 to Prince Rose and is line bred 5x8x8x6 to Man o' War, while his sire Buckaroo is inbred 4x5 to Blue Larkspur and La Troienne.{{cite book|author=Avalyn Hunter|title=American Classic Pedigrees (1914-2002)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ozOLKZl9XzsC&pg=PA472|access-date=3 July 2013|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Eclipse Press|isbn=978-1-58150-095-0|pages=472–|author-link=Avalyn Hunter}}

On May 4, 1985, Spend a Buck won the Kentucky Derby by 5-3/4 lengths over Stephan's Odyssey under jockey Angel Cordero Jr. His 2:00 1/5 time is the fourth fastest as of 2023. He paid $10.20, $5.40, and $3.40. It was his trainer Cam Gambolati's first attempt to win the Derby, a feat not matched again until 2003 when Barclay Tagg saddled Funny Cide for his win.

Earlier in the season, Spend a Buck had won two races at the newly reopened Garden State Park Racetrack in Cherry Hill, New Jersey: the Cherry Hill Mile Stakes on April 6 and the Garden State Stakes on April 20. Before the season began, Garden State Park owner Robert Brennan had put up a $2-million bonus to the horse that won the two April preparatory races, the Kentucky Derby, and the May 27 Jersey Derby, Garden State's signature race.

Spend a Buck's owner, Dennis Diaz, opted to skip the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes and thus trade Spend a Buck's chance to win the Triple Crown for a shot at the bonus. Cordero, Spend a Buck's regular jockey, was committed to another race that day, so Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. rode Spend a Buck at Garden State. Spend a Buck won the Jersey Derby by a neck over eventual Belmont winner Creme Fraiche, capturing a $2.6-million prize, the then largest single purse in American racing history. That record stood for 19 years, until Smarty Jones won the 2004 Kentucky Derby.

Because Spend a Buck skipped the last two legs of the Triple Crown, the Triple Crown races put up a bonus of their own to encourage participation in the series.

Spend a Buck set a track record of 146.80 for a mile and an eighth in winning the 1985 Monmouth Handicap (now known as the Philip H. Iselin Stakes), which stood for 37 years until broken in 2022.

Spend a Buck was voted the 1985 Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Colt.

Several races were named for Spend a Buck, including the Spend a Buck Stakes at Monmouth Park and the Grade III Spend a Buck Handicap at Calder Race Course.

Spend a Buck had a successful post-racing career standing stud,{{cite web |url=http://www.pedigreepost.com/archives/SpendaBuckJoseOliveira.html |title=Spend A Buck: King O' Brazil by Jose Maria Pinto Oliveira |website=www.pedigreepost.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011209155824/http://www.pedigreepost.com/archives/SpendaBuckJoseOliveira.html |archive-date=2001-12-09}} siring 27 stakes winners with earnings of over $16 million. He died on November 24, 2002, at Haras Bage do Sul in Brazil following an anaphylactic reaction to penicillin.{{Cite web | url=http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/breeding-news/2002/December/04/Kentucky-Derby-winner-Spend-a-Buck-dies-in-Brazil.aspx |title = - Thoroughbred Times}}

{{Pedigree|

name = Spend a Buck|

f = Buckaroo |

m = Belle de Jour |

ff = Buckpasser |

fm = Stepping High |

mf = Speak John |

mm = Battle Dress |

fff = Tom Fool |

ffm = Busanda |

fmf = No Robbery |

fmm = Bebop II |

mff = Prince John |

mfm = Nuit de Folies |

mmf = Jaipur |

mmm = Armorial |

ffff = Menow |

fffm = Gaga |

ffmf = War Admiral |

ffmm = Businesslike |

fmff = Swaps |

fmfm = Bimlette |

fmmf = Prince Bio |

fmmm = Cappellina |

mfff = Princequillo |

mffm = Not Afraid |

mfmf = Tornado |

mfmm = Folle Nuit |

mmff = Nasrullah |

mmfm = Rare Perfume |

mmmf = Battlefield |

mmmm = Tellaris |

}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.kentuckyderby.com/history/year/1985 Spend a Buck's Kentucky Derby]
• [http://www.pedigreequery.com/spend+a+buck Spend a Buck's pedigree and partial racing stats]

{{Kentucky Derby Winners}}

{{American Horse of the Year winners}}

Category:1982 racehorse births

Category:2002 racehorse deaths

Category:Racehorses trained in the United States

Category:Racehorses bred in Kentucky

Category:American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year

Category:Kentucky Derby winners

Category:Thoroughbred family 1-s