By Mark
Ratzky, publicity – Cal Expo Harness
When
Get Down Tonight ignited in the stretch at nearly 12-1 last weekend with Mooney
Svendsen in the sulky, it was the second straight victory for the pacer and his
owner/trainer Karen Isbell and Earl Kennedy.
Get
Down Tonight, a 6-year-old son of Red River Hanover, was haltered by the pair
in January. After a few starts of getting to know the gelding, they have sent
him out for back-to-back impressive wins from off the pace.
“Last
year Earl helped me with my trotter Boo Coo Blush, who was having some issues
with a quarter crack,” jockey/turned harness conditioner Isbell related. “He
was the one who picked out Get Down Tonight and thought it would be a good idea
for us to go partners on him.
“What
he liked was that he had some good races in the past back East and seemed to be
a pretty easy horse to train. The night we claimed him he was 1-2 and won off
pretty easy.”
With
James Kennedy at the helm, Get Down Tonight looped a field of $3,000 sellers to
get the job done two weeks ago, then came to test deeper waters at most recent
asking and was up to the task at those healthy odds with Svendsen giving
directions.
Meanwhile,
Isbell is looking forward to one of her passions, which is competing under
saddle with the standardbreds. “I think the first competiton will be coming up
this summer at Pocono Downs,” she said. “They are always a lot of fun.”
A reminder that
there are three wagers offered here each night with a reduced 16 percent
takeout rate. They are the 50-cent Pick 5; the 20-cent Pick 4 with a $20,000
guaranteed gross pool on Friday and a $25,000 guarantee on Saturday; and the
10-cent Hi-Five on the finale
Sire Stakes.
Open Trot heading the marquee
A
pair of $10,000 California Sire Stakes for 3-year-olds and an Open Trot
featuring stablemates Inside Broadway and Franks Best are the highlights on
Friday evening’s Watch and Wager LLC card at Cal Expo.
The
Sire Stakes for 3-year-old fillies finds the rapidly-improving Duet, who
captured the most recent big-money dance for the division, taking on two-time
stakes victress De Valeria.
Duet
is a daughter of Disco Devil and the Tulane mare Harmony who is owned and conditioned
by Rick Cisco with Tim Maier at the controls, while De Valeria is a Little
Steven offspring who carries the banner of Eugene Afentoulis with Luke Plano
doing the reining and training.
Duet
was a promising third in her January 31 debut, then caught a sloppy track at
next asking and made a break. She put it all together two weeks ago in the most
recent Sire Stakes, as he did her work in first-over fashion for Maier and went
on to a convincing two and three-quarter length decision with a solid 1:57 2/5
clocking.
De
Valeria proved clearly best in the first two stakes clashes on January 17 and
31. On both occasions she did the stalk and pounce to perfection for Plano
while coming away at the end, then had to settle for a third-place finish as
the 3-5 favorite in that last added-money gathering for his group.
The dark-hued miss came back last week in a
conditioned affair and overcame the No. 9 post to get the job done. Well back
early, De Valeria came rolling in the stretch to prevail by three-quarters of a
length in a lifetime best 1:56 3/5 final clocking.
In
the Sire Stakes for the sophomore trotters, Placer is eyeing his third straight
trophy. The Panama Hanover homebred is trained by Vickie Desomer with husband
Steve in the sulky and has been very impressive getting the job done with his
peers in the last two stakes appearances.
