By Mark Ratzky, publicity – Cal Expo Harness
Beginning this week, the
trotters and pacers will be in action on Friday and Saturday nights, with
Friday’s inaugural program headed by a $4,400 Open III Pace.
First post under the Watch
and Wager LLC banner will be 6:10 p.m. for both the Friday and Saturday
programs.
Mr. Pearl has been assigned
the outside post in the field that will line up for the main event and should
have his share of supporters after turning in three solid efforts in as many
tries at the meeting.
A 4-year-old son of Always A
Virgin out of the Artiscape mare Penny Artcade, he carries the hopes of A Piece
Of The Action LLC with Gene Vallandingham the conditioner and James Kennedy
doing the honors.
Mr. Pearl was a runner-up at
10-1 in his first start at the meet, then flew home and missed by a head at
second asking here while going off the 2-1 favorite that evening with Chip
Lackey in the sulky for both those outings.
The pacer was 4-1 when he
suited up for last week’s assignment with James Kennedy taking over the
controls. He stalked early, came first over on the backside, took over with a
bold move in the stretch and drew off by six lengths in an impressive 1:53 1/5
mile that shaved two-fifths off his career standard.
Set to line up inside him on
Friday are Strings, who has the cozy rail slot, Back Stock, Shark Festival,
Windsun T Bird, FF Bigshow, Anderlecht and Rusty Carter. The headliner goes as
the 10th race on the program.
Reduced takeout wagers
offer great value
Both the 20-cent Pick 4 and
50-cent Pick 5 here at Cal Expo feature a reduced 16 percent takeout rate, and
looking at last Saturday night’s payouts in those two wagers shows just how
much value that equals.
The Pick 5 sequence that
kicked off the program featured winners that paid $5.80, $16.60, $21, $15.20
and ended with an even-money favorite getting the job done.
For each correct 50-cent
investment there was a return of $3,131. Using the regular takeout rate, the
payoff would have been $2,796, a nice difference of $335 per ticket.
The 20-cent Pick 4, which is
decided on the final four events on the evening, saw a 6-5 favorite, a 2-1
second choice, an $8 victor and a $20.80 winner in the nitecap.
The payoff for half a buck
was $1,759, while the normal takeout return would have been $1,570, meaning
$189 more went to holders of winning duckets in that sequence. Not bad at all.
*****
A big welcome back to trainer
Sparky Clarke, who made a pair of trips to the winner’s circle last Saturday
with a couple of pacers who had made their most recent starts at Vernon Downs
in New York.
Sevenatenine is a 2-year-old
filly who was picking up her first lifetime score with Chip Lackey giving
directions, while Barbarian was parlaying two wins at Vernon to a local score
with Tony Succarotte giving directions.
