Siegel registers double
to kick off meet
By Mark Ratzky, publicity – Cal Expo Harness
David Siegel got a solid
start to the meet last Saturday night while guiding a pair of pacers into the
winner’s circle.
Native’s Revenge, who is
co-owned by Siegel and trainer Bob Johnson, got the job done in the third race
on opening night card, with Walker Meister posting a $38 surprise in the 12th
race with Siegel handling the lines for trainer George Reider.
“Bob (Johnson) has had nice
success with Native’s Revenge here after a challenging campaign at Running
Aces,” Siegel noted. “He’s a classy horse and seems to really like the track.
“I was looking for a reliable
horse to buy a piece of in Bob’s barn to diversity my holdings and Native’s
Revenge fit the bill. So when he returned to the left coast, I purchased a
piece of him and was fortunate that he fit the bottom conditioned class in his
first start and returned to his old winning form here.”
David added that Native’s
Revenge is being pointed for the Alan Horowitz series, with the opening leg of
that event scheduled for Saturday, November 11.
A few hours after prevailing
with Native’s Revenge, Siegel once again got his picture taken after working
out a pefect trip with Walker Meister and lighting up the toteboard in the process.
“It’s somewhat similar in
that he had not been racing in great form at Running Aces,” Siegel said. “It
seems like Walker Meister has fared best here in California.
“George approaches the return
of his horses with a long-term view, that is six months of racing ahead, and he
also wanted to give the barn a nice breather after Aces. So, as expected, most
of his horses were a little short last week.
“I had a conservative plan
for Walker Meister, but when I looked left from the seven hole, there were very
few that had that ‘leave’ look so I jumped out of there along with the horse I
thought I had to beat in Hi Ho’s Little Rev.
“Mooney (Svendsen) did the
right thing with that horse and retook. At that point I knew Bobby Johnson’s
horses were all ready to rock and roll on opening night and I thought I could
be good enough to be second.
“But Walker Meister kept
right up at the half and that’s when I thought I just might get there. By the
three-quarter pole I had a good feeling I would win and the gelding was solid.
“I use Speed Ratings and his
77 was about 10 points up from his recent Running Aces efforts. No doubt he
likes the Cal Expo surface and maybe just likes being home. He’ll have to step
up now, but the way he raced I expect him to be quite competitive.”
Open Trot, Pick 5
carryover in spotlight
A $6,600 Open Trot and a Pick
5 carryover of $4,400 with a $20,000-guaranteed pool head the program Friday
night at Cal Expo.
The trotters and pacers are
now in action on Friday and Saturday evenings under the banner of Watch and
Wager LLC with first post set for 6:10 p.m. There will be 10 races on
both Friday and Saturday.
The Pick 5 is a 50-cent wager
which is conducted on the first five races each night and features a reduced 16
percent takeout rate. That low takeout is also offered on the 20-cent Pick 4
that covers the penultimate four races on the card.
Looking at the featured Open
Trot, racing secretary Robin Schadt has assigned the Luke Plano
trained-and-driven Pridecrest the outside post in the cast of seven, with the
other six sidewheelers drawing their slots.
A 5-year-old son of Angus
Hall, Pridecrest carries the hopes of Mark Hinshaw and invades from the Midwest
having met some solid company at Hawthorne and Hoosier Park this season.
He scored his most recent
victory in an Open event on August 26 over a good track at Hawthorne, as he set
a stalking journey that evening and ignited in the stretch to win going away by
2 1/4 lengths while rewarding his backers as an 11-1 shot.
Taking him on, from the rail
out: Agrestores Comet with Chip Lackey; Becky Badger Baby, Nick Roland;
Itzaziam, to be handled by Sean Smithpeters; Talkin Tootsie, Mooney Svendsen;
and Silverlode with Steve Desomer.
