Collect the Cash returns at Belmont

ELMONT, N.Y. - It will be at least another week before trainer Joe Orseno learns if he's getting his champion turf mare Perfect Sting back from injury. In the meantime, he has been preparing his other top turf filly, Collect the Cash, for her return to the races.

Collect the Cash, who won last year's Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth Challenge at Keeneland, is scheduled to make her 4-year-old debut in a $54,000 classified allowance race Wednesday, one of five turf races scheduled on an intriguing mid-week card at Belmont Park.

Collect the Cash, a 4-year-old daughter of Dynaformer, will face seven rivals in the nine-furlong race including South American Group 1 winners Miss Linda and Verruma. She will also be looking to give Orseno (0 for 17) his first victory at the meeting.

After reeling off four consecutive victories, including the Queen Elizabeth last fall, Collect the Cash finished a disappointing 11th behind Perfect Sting in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Perfect Sting suffered a tendon injury when finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap against the colts on June 9 and her status will be re-evaluated next week.

According to Orseno, Collect the Cash had a chip surgically removed from a knee the day after the Breeders' Cup. Collect the Cash returned to Orseno's barn in Florida, and she's been training steadily for her return, including a five-furlong move in 1:00 on June 14 over Belmont's turf course.

"If she some comes back the way she left me last year, there's no reason she shouldn't be competitive," at the top of the division, Orseno said. "We're at point where we need to run her."

Collect the Cash figures to be on or near the lead under Jerry Bailey, but she may have to deal with Babae, another mare who did well in South American before coming to the U.S. last year.

Verruma won a Group 1 stakes in Brazil in 1999 but suffered an injury in her next start that kept her out of action for nearly two years. Three weeks ago, she made her North American debut - and first start in 22 months - to finish a fast-closing second in the Rosenna Stakes at Delaware Park. She would benefit if Collect the Cash and Babae duel.

Miss Linda, a daughter of Southern Halo, won a Group 1 race in Argentina in her only start on turf before coming to John Kimmel's barn earlier this year. She has disappointed twice as the favorite on dirt and may benefit from the surface switch. Kimmel enters the day on a 0 for 20 skid at the meet.