Special Friday program
features sophomore pacers
By Mark Ratzky, publicity –
Cal Expo Harness
Allmyx’sliveintexas and
Moonstone Beach, who have made clean sweeps of their respective stakes
divisions this year for the team of owner/breeders Wayne and Rod Knittel and
trainer Bob Johnson, look to continue their dominance in Friday night’s two
$10,000 California Sire Stakes for 3-year-old pacers.
A special 12-race card is on
tap Friday with first post set for 6:15 p.m. The trotting and pacing action
will continue Saturday night, with no live racing on Easter Sunday. Next week
will find a return to the regular Saturday and Sunday programs.
Allmyx’sliveintexas is son of
Hi Ho Silverheel’s out of the Distinguishedbaron mare Annie Get Your Gun and he
will once again be handled by Mooney Svendsen. He comes into this assignment
having won four of his eight starts, with a victory in the opening leg of the
Lonnie Beck Series to go along with his trio of stakes decisions.
The Knittel homebred did the
stalk and pounce to get the job done in the first two Sire Stakes in February,
then proved a sloppy track was in his wheelhouse as he romped home by 10
lengths in the most recent big-money gathering for his group.
Lining up against him this
weekend are Midnight Adventure, to be handled by Chip Lackey; Rock Of Ages with
Mike Jarvis; Mathachussetts, Steve Wiseman; and One More Chance with Luke Plano
in the sulky.
Meanwhile, Allymx’sliveintexas’
stablemate Moonstone Beach has been just as dominant among the fillies for the
Knittel/Johnson/Svendsen team. A daughter of Crisis Situation, she has captured
the last two Sire Stakes by a combined 13 lengths, the most recent coming over
an off track on March 12.
Little Emma (Luke Plano) and
Plain Awesome (James Kennedy) will tak
Frankthebank continues
to make deposits
Frankthebank showed he still
has the right stuff at age 14 when he posted an 8-1 upset over a sloppy track
on last Sunday night’s program.
Racing for Rick and Marlene
Thomas with George Reider his longtime conditioner and Luke Plano at the
controls, the old guy sat patiently in the pocket and then came when it counted
to be up by a neck for his second victory on the season from 11 tries.
The victory pushed
Frankthebank’s bankroll over the $460,000 plateau with a 1:51 lifetime standard
and Reider noted he will go to Hawthorne this summer and then return here in
the fall here before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 15.
“He has his senior moments,
but he’s all class,” trainer Reider noted after last Sunday’s win.
“Frank is the gift that just
keeps on giving. Luke got off him and said he's a good old horse very set in
his way, but when he gets behind the gate he's all business and can still get
the job done.”
George admits that being the
senior citizen around the barn does come with its privileges. “One thing
about him being 14 now is that I kind of spoil him. Every time he sees me he
uses me as a scratching post for his head. He will literally rub his head on me
for five minutes if I let him.
“Two months ago, somehow he
got his stall guard down at night. I keep a big bag of carrots next to my
office and he knows exactly where they are. It was about two-thirds full, and
when I came in the next morning the bag was empty and his morning breakfast and
the two horses next to his was gone and he was lying down in the stall.
“Most mornings he has
seniority and he's the first to go out, but this time he was the last to go out
after his big breakfast.”
This summer Frankthebank is
headed back to Illinois where he was born. “I'm pretty sure if he could talk,”
Reider said with a smile, “he would be saying going to Chicago is nice for a
visit, but I want to retire in California”
And so it shall be for the
veteran pacer who has brought so much joy to Rick and Marlene Thomas and his
trainer/scratching post George Reider.
