BACK-TO-BACK
MILLION DOLLAR NIGHTS,
SHARP INCREASE
IN HANDLE AT CAL EXPO
By Mark Ratzky, publicity – Cal
Expo Harness
Last week saw
over $1 million in business on both Friday and Saturday evening at the Watch
and Wager LLC meet at Cal Expo, with the daily average now sitting at $845,421,
which is an increase of 26.5 percent over last year. The average field size is
also a very healthy nine trotters and pacers per race.
"The bettors
are speaking loud and clear, full and competitive fields drive handle,"
said General Manager Chris Schick.
DILLON ENJOYING
SUCCESS VIA LONG DISTANCE
Britney Dillon
is having a great meet here in partnership with trainer Gretchen Smith, with
the likes of the classy 13-year-old Jovial Joker, Yuma and Medoland Sapphire
carrying her banner into the winner’s circle.
“I originally
got involved with Standardbreds here in Michigan through the Gardner family,”
Dillon related. “I’ve always had show horses, and still do, but I started going
to track with them and got hooked. Now I divide my time between those two areas
of the horse world.”
Britney has
trained her own trotters and pacers for the past few years, but is currently
working on getting her Master’s degree and decided she needed a break to
concentrate on that goal.
“I met Gretchen
through a mutual friend a couple of years ago and we hit it off famously. I
admire her as both a trainer and as a person, so when I decided to send my
horses to someone else, it was an easy decision to send them to California with
Gretchen.”
Jovial Joker
and Yuma finished one-two in last week’s opening leg of the Jim Dennis Series,
with the latter coming back this week while Jovial Joker will skip this
go-around and return for next week’s series finale.
“What can I say
about Jovial Joker? He’s the best there is. I’ve owned a lot of horses, but
he’s the one that I always know will give 110 percent no matter what. He may be
13, but he doesn’t know it when he wakes up in the morning. He loves to race
and I’ll never own another one like him.”
Yuma closed
with a rush to be second behind his stablemate last weekend and gets the barn
spotlight this week. “I recently purchased him with Gretchen. I had been
watching him every week and really liked the looks of him. He has a really nice
way of going and a like his racing style.”
Medoland
Sapphire has been a pleasant surprise since coming to Cal Expo. “Ronnie Wrenn
Jr. and I bought her out of the November Delaware sale hoping that should be a
good 4 claimer and she has met and passed our expectations may times over.
She’s a quirky horse, but if you just relax and let her think she’s making the
decisions, everything goes great.”
JIM DENNIS
SERIES, OPEN PACE HIGHLIGHTS
The second leg
of the Jim Dennis Pacing Series and a $6,000 Open Pace are the main events on
Saturday evening’s Watch and Wager LLC program at Cal Expo. A 15-race card is
on tap, with the Dennis set as the third event and the Open Pace occupying the
eleventh-race slot.
Last week’s
opening Dennis leg winner Jovial Joker is sitting out the race this time around
and will be back in action in next week’s final, but trainer Gretchen Smith is
still well represented with Yuma and Bookie Farout suiting up for this
go-around.
Yuma is a
6-year-old son of Western Hanover who is owned by the partnership of Dillon,
Scott and Smith with Tim Maier handling the reins. He sports a 1:53 3/5 career
standard that was established three years ago.
Sent off at
9-1 in last week’s first leg, Yuma came a sparkling :27 flat final quarter but
fell a length short of catching his favored stablemate Jovial Joker that
evening in the 1:54 3/5 tour. He will no doubt appreciate not having to take on
that classy veteran in this spot, although the latter is definitely waiting for
him next week.
Completing the
field are Phantom Dan for James Kennedy; Memphis Mobster with Steve Wiseman in
the sulky; Bookie Farout and Scoot Cisco; Red Star Popeye, to be handled by
Chip Lackey; and Mister T-Rex, who goes from the outside for Bruce Clarke.
