Sire Stakes, Open Trot,
Hi-Five Carryover
Featured on
special Friday program
By Mark Ratzky, publicity – Cal Expo Harness
A pair of California Sire
Stakes for 4-year-olds headed by Speak English and Sandy’s Song and on Open
Trot featuring Northern Stormont are the main attractions on a special Friday
card at Cal Expo.
First post for 12-race race
program is 6:15 p.m. This week will find the trotters and pacers in action on
Friday and Saturday, with no live racing on Super Bowl Sunday.
There will be an $11,355
Hi-Five carryover on the 10th race. The Hi-Five is a 20-cent minimum wager and
will feature a $30,000-guaranteed gross pool.
Looking at the pacing distaff
stakes, Speak English is a homebred daughter of Power Of Art out of the
Incredible Finale mare Credible Preciosa who is conditioned by Tim Clevenger
and will have Luke Plano giving directions.
The dark-hued mare made her
belated debut last March and has made all four of her starts in Sire Stakes
company, coming away with three wins and a third. Tim Maier was at the controls
in the first three starts, including two victories, while Plano was at the
controls for her final start of last year with a coast-to-coast stakes score.
Speak English had a pair of
qualifiers before last week’s 2016 debut and she turned in a solid second-place
finish behind Mistup Magic that should set the Nevarez colorbearer up
perfectly for this assignment.
Taking her on are Smash,
Little Cher Amo and Avila Beach. The trotting stakes will find Sandy’s Song
being challenged by Comedienne, Zoeys Delight, Dougs Hobby Horse, Get Ziggy and
Cadet.
There will be an $11,355
Hi-Five carryover on the 10th race. The Hi-Five is a 20-cent minimum wager and
will feature a $30,000-guaranteed gross pool.
Speak English eyes
addition to trophy case
Speak English didn’t get to
the races until last March, but certainly made up for lost time by winning
three of the last four Sire Stakes races decided for the pacing fillies.
Fast forward to Friday, where
the first stakes contest of 2016 for the division will be decided and Speak
English figures to have plenty of support. The Power Of Art homebred carries
the banner of Frank Nevarez with Tim Clevenger the conditioner and Luke Plano
handling the lines.
Speak English showed she was
a force to be reckoned with right off the bat when she made a victorious 15-1
debut in a March 15 Sire Stakes and ended up with two more added-money tallies
before the meet came to an end in the spring.
She was rested up following
that and had a solid return to the wars last week over a “good’ track, checking
in second to Mistup Magic in a conditioned affair that should prove to the
perfect prep for Friday’s return to the stakes action.
“She actually qualified in
June of 2014 and again here in December of that year, but came with a virus and
we didn’t want to rush her,” trainer Graham explained.
“To be honest, I was
surprised she was such a big price in her debut, because we knew she had plenty
of talent. She came her back half in :55 3/5 that night, which is awfully
impressive, especially for a first-time starter.”
Graham related that Speak
English’s only loss in her four stakes attempts last season was likely due to a
cough she had earlier that week, and she returned to crush those same rivals
two weeks later in the last big-money race for the division at that meeting.
