by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — She triumphed in the first 14 races of her career, but when Enough Cash broke stride and finished last of six in her 15th and final engagement of 2011, at Monticello Raceway on October 4, understandably her connections were disappointed although they knew it wasn’t because of their filly.

“I was confident that day,” explained owner/trainer/driver Doug Ackley. “I had the rail so I let her trot right out of there and she had a two length lead around the first turn. I thought everything was just fine until she broke a trotting hobble and that was the end of the story. I should have put a new pair of hobbles on her as I had kept them on her all summer and they weren’t new when we started. She had an excuse.”

Ackley, a former dairy farmer who has raced horses with his wife Tyra for 45 of the years they have married, bred and raised the 2-year-old daughter of Cash Hall and Fashionablefilly by Lindy Lane. He purchased Enough Cash’s dam, who has dropped six foals, five of racing age, with her first foal Easter El Paso (by El Paso Kash) 1:57f, ($128,594), from the Morrisville Sale in September of 2000 for $6,700. She is a half-sister to Fashion Setter (by Donerail, who sold for $60,000 at the 1998 Kentucky Standardbred Sale) who produced the champion Enough Talk.

Paul White photo

Enough Cash won 14 races in 2011 and is tied for the most victories this year by a freshman trotter.

Named similarly to her famous relation, Enough Cash showed promise right from the beginning her of career. The filly won her first 12 races while competing on the New York County Fair Circuit and captured her first start in the pari-mutuel ranks at Batavia Downs on September 5 in the $8,000 New York County Fair Final. Moving on to the New York Bred Late Closers on September 17, also at Batavia, she scored in 2:02.3h, which is her lifetime mark. She has banked $25,390 to date and is tied with world champion Check Me Out and Iowa fair campaigner Morey for most wins in 2011 for a 2-year-old trotter.

“I don’t have dairy cattle anymore and just mess with the horses,” the 66-year-old Ackley said. “My dad got involved with horses when I was about five. I was the first one in my family to get their driver’s license and did that since I was 16.

“We liked this filly right from the beginning,” the Gowonda, N.Y., resident continued. “When I bought her dam I was looking for a Lindy Lane filly and she did all right for us. We’ve raced other horses out of her and one (Easter El Paso) has a mark of 1:57. This filly was good-sized and we liked her right away. I broke her last September, trained her down to 2:50 in November and then turned her out until March, as we had such a hard winter. After I trained her for about a month, I knew she was talented.”

Enough Cash made her debut with a victory in 2:12.4 at the Sandy Creek Fair in a $1,612 division of a New York County Fair 2-year-old trot. After winning 10 straight, Ackley qualified her at Batavia Downs on August 10, where she finished second, in order to prepare her for the late closer contests after the fairs ended.

“Before we started her, I had a friend I drive horses with ask me how I liked her,” Ackley said. “I never talk them up too much, because so many things can go wrong, but I said even if something does go wrong she is one of the better ones I’ve ever had.

“Then she won her first race, her second race and then she had won them all,” he continued. “Most of the time I went right to the front with her. I didn’t have to as she’s real nice to drive, but at the fairs that’s the place to be. Her mother had extreme gate speed and so does she.”

Although she dominated her competition at the fairs, the Ackleys will more than likely follow a similar program when they bring Enough Cash back to the races in 2012.

“We will probably follow the same plan,” Ackley said. “We may step her up and race her in the late closers or Sire Stakes, but it is a big jump even though she is a very nice filly and does have speed.”