Retirement Fund looks full of promise

Retirement Fund came out of the gate in his career debut, a route race for maidens Dec. 22 at Fair Grounds, a 13-1 shot. About a minute and 44 seconds later, he bounded past the finish line a 7 1/4-length winner and yet another 3-year-old to watch from the barn of trainer Steve Asmussen.

Granted, everything went Retirement Fund’s way first time out. Away alertly under Shaun Bridgmohan, Retirement Fund made the lead, set a soft pace, and dashed away from the competition with a third quarter-mile in 25 seconds, a pretty decent clocking around the turn at Fair Grounds. Up by 2 1/4 lengths at the stretch call, Retirement Fund rapidly widened his margin to the finish – and now we will see just how real that performance was.

Retirement Fund is one of eight 3-year-olds entered in race 9 on Saturday at Fair Grounds, a first-level allowance also open to $50,000 claimers and carded, like his debut, at one mile and 70 yards. Retirement Fund once again has the rail and Bridgmohan, but the competition is stronger this time, and the pace, barring the unforeseen, ought to be much faster than in the colt’s maiden win.

Different, too, will be Retirement Fund’s price. He is 2-1 on the morning line, and Retirement Fund could go off well below that number with a racebest 82 Beyer Speed Figure next to his running line and a Hall of Fame trainer listed on his form. Saturday success means more stakes-sorting for Asmussen, who just last week sent out the second- through fourthplace finishers in the Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds and the second and third finishers in the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn.

The Asmussen-trained Principe Guilherme, second in the Lecomte, won the Fair Grounds allowance race that Saturday entrants Private Eye (second), Dark Templar (third), and Ciaran (sixth) all exit. Dark Templar might have the most upside of that trio, and appeared to tire late last time after chasing the loose-on-lead Principe Guilherme.

Last Drop of Wine has been setting the pace in sprint races, and he, if no one else, will force Retirement Fund either to go faster or change his tactics Saturday.

The 3-year-old race is part of a solid second half of the Saturday card, which has race 7, a second-level, six-furlong dirt allowance race also open to $40,000 claimers, as the day’s feature. Matched for the second time at this meet are Floroplus and Wynn Time, the one-two finishers in a fast Nov. 30 firstlevel sprint allowance. Wynn Time returned to comfortably win at the level Dec. 23, while Floroplus was scratched from a race like Saturday’s after locking a stifle, trainer Bret Calhoun said. The scratch gave Floroplus a little more time to get over a career-best performance produced after a yearplus layoff.

“Like all paranoid trainers, I was looking for a reason not to run, being worried about the bounce,” Calhoun said. “They don’t show you in the morning, but it’s real.”