Shamderock, fresh from recording the 11th Sire Stakes victory of his career, heads the cast at Cal Expo for Friday night’s (December 16) $4,500 Winners-over pace. He has been assigned the outside post while taking on Myra’s Hiho, Haggin Oaks, Cycle Power and One And Only in the main event.
Shamderock is a 3-year-old homebred son of Hi Ho Silverheels and the Brocton mare Maya who is owned by D&E Racing Inc. with Luke Plano doing the driving and training. He has accounted for 19 of his 39 career trips to the post with $112,000 in his account and a 1:52 standard that was established this summer at Vernon Downs in New York.
The sophomore went into the November 26 stakes dance having made a clean sweep of the 10 added-money races decided for his division, but was upset by Live A Little that evening after showing the way to the stretch with a clear advantage. He returned to his winning ways last weekend, however, as Plano sat the pocket for three-quarters, motored to the top in the stretch and drew off for a two and a quarter-length decision.
Cycle Power is coming off back-to-back solid efforts for his owner/trainer Nathalie Tremblay and driver Steve Wiseman. The son of Cambest was a game, first-over winner with a slightly softer group two back, then went another big mile last week on the return to this top rung and finished well when getting the exacta completion behind Marlin Hanover.
Myra’s Hiho is having a great meet and helps make things very interesting. He rattled off three scores in a row between October 22 and November 18 at this level, stalking on two of those occasions and carving out the fractions in the other. The first of those tallies was in a lifetime-best 1:54.4 clocking. Another by Hi Ho Silverheels, this dark-hued 5-year-old races for Bob Johnson, Hank Wieseneck and Marty Garey with Johnson the conditioner and Jim Lackey in his usual spot in the sulky.
Haggin Oaks is the lone mare in the cast and was a handy victress when clicking with this kind two back on December 3. She is looking to make amends after suffering a setback at 4-5 last weekend. Shari Burns, Ferris Funk and Gerald Cimini own while James Kennedy does the driving and training.
Live racing resumes at Cal Expo on Thursday (December 15) at 5:30 p.m. (PST) and continues on Friday (December 16) & Saturday (December 17) 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 now offers a reduced 15 percent takeout rate on all Pick 4’s (Thursday/Friday nights in partnership with the USTA Strategic Wagering Committee). In addition, all Late Pick 4’s will come with a $10,000-guaranteed pool. On Saturday night, there will be a 0% takeout on successful Late Pick 4 tickets made at Cal Expo or at Twinspires.com.
