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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

A Trotter, For Better Or For Worse At Cal Expo

As wedding gifts go, the 4-year-old Franky Provolone has to be pretty unique.  Rick Plano gave the trotter to son Luke and bride Nikki when they got married last year, and last week found the son of Armbro Scribe getting his picture taken for the sixth time on the season.

Franky Provolone, who gave announcer Scott Ehrlich a high fastball to hit out of the park when he battled with Bobby Baccala through the stretch in that score, is a workmanlike trotter who likes to play the stalking role.

“Franky went a good race last time and he’s one of five horses I’ve got here,” Luke informed.  “The plan is to stay at least through the stakes races, and then we’ll see what happens.  My dad is at Vernon Downs right now, then he’ll be going to Florida.”

Luke, who won a 2-year-old Sire Stakes last weekend with Littlest Mermaid for trainer Denise Maier, will be a heavy favorite to do the same with his barn’s Shamderock on Saturday in the first big-money clash of the fall for the 3-year-old pacing males.

The D & E Racing homebred has made a clean sweep of the stakes events for his division to this point, with enough trophies to fill a room.  He’s captured half of his 32 lifetime appearances with a 1:52 standard that was established this summer at Vernon Downs and his stakes rivals this weekend have their work cut out once again.

Live racing resumes at Cal Expo On Thursday, (October 27) at 5:30 p.m. (PDT), and continues on Friday (October 28) & Saturday (October 29) is at 6:00 p.m.  On Thursday and every live card, Cal Expo offers free admission, as well as free preferred & general parking after 4:30 p.m.  Also on Thursday night from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Cal Expo offers a complete Lasagna dinner, which includes salad and bread, for just $3.00.  Additionally on Thursday, beer & wine can be purchased for $3.00 each as well.

Cal Expo offers a reduced 15 percent takeout rate on Saturdays for both Pick 4’s.  In addition, the late Pick 4 will come with a $10,000-guaranteed pool and there will be a 0% takeout on successful Late Pick 4 tickets made on track or at Twinspires.com.