Cashier's Dream training with eye toward sprint stakes

NEW ORLEANS - Unraced since finishing second in a head-to-head duel with You in the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes on Oct. 6, * returned to the racetrack late last month to begin preparing for a 2002 campaign.

Cashier's Dream began jogging daily around Christmas, and the pace of her training will accelerate in coming weeks.

Trainer Steve Asmussen said tentative plans call for Cashier's Dream to start this spring, perhaps in the Beaumont Stakes at Keeneland, and then point to the July 6 Prioress Stakes at Belmont. Asmussen will aim Cashier's Dream to the Grade 1 Test Stakes this summer at Saratoga, where she won the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes last year.

Cashier's Dream, a Michigan-bred by the young sire Service Stripe, came out of nowhere - and a $50,000 maiden claiming debut - to become one of the top 2-year-old fillies in the country last year. Team Valor and Heiligbrodt Racing Stable purchased Cashier's Dream privately after she won the first two starts of her career, and she wound up her season with a record of 4-2-0 from six starts and earnings in excess of $350,000.

The Frizette was Cashier's Dream's only start at a route, and Asmussen mentioned no plans to run her long this year.

Though she has rested since the fall, Cashier's Dream has never left the racetrack. She went from Belmont to Churchill Downs, where she walked in Asmussen's barn each morning, before shipping into Fair Grounds.

Littleexpectations retired

Another Asmussen-trained horse, Little-expectations, was recently retired, and will begin a career as a stallion this winter in Texas. A son of Valid Appeal out of the outstanding mare Mepache, Littleexpectations is a full brother to Valid Expectations, one of the best freshman sires of 2001.

Littleexpectations, who finished sixth of seven in his final race on Dec. 7 at Fair Grounds, seemed destined for stardom two winters ago when he won the Old Hickory by three lengths and the Sugar Bowl by two lengths. But he never won another stakes race after the Sugar Bowl.

He retired to stud for his owner, the Ackerley Brothers Farm, with a career record of 17-6-2-0 and earnings of $205,480.

Boston Twist injured, out of Thelma

Expected to run in Sunday's Thelma Stakes, Boston Twist suffered a serious injury in a recent workout and is out of action indefinitely.

Trainer Josie Carroll said X-rays of the filly's knee were being examined by specialists, and that a decision on Boston Twist's status would be made soon.

A Boston Harbor filly, Boston Twist has won three of five races, including an easy score Nov. 11 in the $100,000 Glorious Song at Woodbine. Her only losses came in her debut and the Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland.

"She's just got so much ability," Carroll said.

Scratches ruin Rasberry

When C J's Star won Thursday's Elge Rasberry Memorial Stakes by more than seven lengths, she beat only two horses. Six horses were entered in the Rasberry, for Louisiana-bred 3-year-old fillies, but two were scratched by their trainers in the morning and Doc Knows Best was scratched at the gate by track veterinarian Tom David.

Show betting was canceled on the race, but all other wagers were accepted, including place, exacta, and trifecta bets. The top two betting interests, C J's Star and Monumental Upset, finished first and second, creating a negative place pool of almost $24,000, according to Fair Grounds officials.

"You always worry about something like that," said Fair Grounds director of racing Mervin Muniz.

Because trainers do not need permission from a veterinarian or the stewards to scratch a horse from a stakes race, "there's nothing you can do to control it," Muniz said.

The short field also generated absurdly short exotic payoffs: A $2 exacta and $2 quinella each paid $2.20, and a $2 trifecta paid $3.

Training canceled for second day

For the second straight day, training at Fair Grounds Friday was canceled because of a frozen racetrack. Because the Fair Grounds main track is not winterized, sub-freezing temperatures - rare in New Orleans - render the surface unusable.

Horses were confined to their barns again Friday, but the track was opened at about 11:40 a.m. for a few horses to breeze and gallop.

The surface here thaws as the morning sun rises and the track escapes from the shadow of the grandstand. Track maintenance crews then can begin working to facilitate the thaw. Frozen tracks rarely affect Fair Grounds racing programs.

This is expected to be the last training day lost to the cold snap, because the forecast was for above-freezing temperatures Friday night.

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