Cash entourage claims they aren't expecting a winner in Nottingham
- Planet Sport writer
- 1 November 2022
Connections of Cash insist they are on something of a fact-finding mission when he makes his return to the track for the first time since April, at Nottingham on Wednesday.
The Earle Mack-owned grey broke his maiden at the first time of asking over a mile at Newmarket on his sole start as a juvenile and was a short-head runner-up to Westover in the Classic Trial on his three-year-old bow at Sandown in April.
While Westover went on to finish an unlucky-in-running third to Desert Crown in the Derby, before taking the laurels in the Irish equivalent, the David Simcock-trained Cash was subsequently sidelined with a minor injury.
However, he is set to take on four rivals as he drops back in trip for Listed Ben Marshall Stakes over an extended mile.
"It is all systems go. His work has been fabulous and we're looking forward to a run," said the owner's racing manager, Anthony Burke.
"He will obviously need it. We don't want him to go into his four-year-old career only having had two runs and we may waste a couple of runs through inexperience next year.
"This is more for experience, because he hasn't been on the racecourse since April.
"Next year we have big plans for him and we don't want to waste time through inexperience.
"We are just there for the experience and if he wins he wins, but we are just hoping for a good run.
"The ground looks like it will be heavy, which I would think would suit the Irish horse (Power Under Me).
"Cash's work has been good and I think he will handle the ground. When he ran at Newmarket there was a bit of dig in the ground and we've said we would never run him on fast ground.
"It is not going to suit everyone, but we just want to get him out on the grass at this time of year. Your options are limited."
Simcock is still unsure what the Shamardal colt's optimum distance will be and having stayed on well over 10 furlongs at Sandown, he goes back down on his return.
Burke added: "We are not totally sure of what his targets will be next year, as we have only got a small sample to go on.
"We are not entirely sure what is his best trip. He did work in the spring with a horse who had a lot of speed. He was showing the same sort of speed as Light Infantry had.
"He could be a very classy mile-and-two-furlong horse, he could be a miler. Initially, we all thought he was a mile-and-four horse, but that is the one question mark we have about him, because we have only run him twice.
"If he won over a mile in October as a two-year-old, you'd think he might be a stayer, don't you?
"So, that will be another point to the exercise - to find out his trip.
"If he is a mile-and-two horse, he will take in all the big mile-and-two races. As he is older, he might just adapt to the ground, too, but we are looking forward to getting him racing again."
