When Picking Up Pennies finished fifth in his career debut at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 2 of last year, the First Dude gelding picked up a few dollars – $400, to be exact. Since that time, the $30,000 OBS October yearling has never finished worse than fourth, running up a record of 4-3-1-2 over his next 10 starts, including yesterday’s wire-to-wire beauty at Gulfstream. 

    Even in the two races where he finished fourth, Picking Up Pennies earned checks of $2,700 and $2,150, and the payoff of $25,800 for winning yesterday’s $43,000 allowance optional claimer raised his career total to $125,520. That means the gelding bred by Jesus Rodriguez has been picking up a healthy $11,410 per start.

    In yesterday’s race, Edgard Zayas had Picking Up Pennies in the mix for the lead at the first quarter, then the gelding edged away from the pack going to the half in :45.11 and never looked back, scoring by 2 1/4 lengths in 1:35.35 for the mile. He was awarded his best ‘E’ speed figure of 107, and became First Dude’s 34th winner of 2022, third best among Florida’s stallions, just one away from second.