By Mark Ratzky, publicity – Cal Expo Harness
Cenalta Call Girl, who has
already captured the Annette Funicello Final at this meet, looks to add the
$9,800 Robert Staats Final to her resume here Saturday night.
Eight pacing fillies and
mares will do battle in the main event, which goes as the 6th event
on a 12-race program under the Watch and Wager LLC banner. First post is 6:10
p.m.
There will be mandatory
payouts on all wagers Saturday.
Cenalta Call Girl is a
3-year-old daughter of Allamerican Merlin who is owned by Rene Goulet and Helen
and Myra Empey and is reined and trained by Goulet. She comes into this contest
having posed for pictures following four of her nine lifetime trips to the post
and three of her four local appearances.
On November 17, the bay miss
proved a punctual 3-5 favorite in the Funicello Final as she came first-over to
get the job done with Goulet. In last week’s Staats Prep, Cenalta Call Girl
exploded with a :26 4/5 final quarter to win going away by a length and a
quarter in another impressive mile.
Yeswellnomaybe was her most
immediate victim in that affair and looms large once again for owner Fabiola
Quevedo, trainer Edwin Quevedo and pilot Ryan Grundy. She has recorded four
runner-up finishes from her six appearances at this meet.
Completing the field are Free
Radical, Alwaysalittlemore, Rockin Repeat, Cenalta Cougar, Wizzel Stix and Be
My Lucky Lady.
****
There will be no live racing
here next week, with the trotters and pacers back in action on December 26 with
a special Tuesday evening card that will begin at 5 p.m. There will also be
racing that week on Friday and Saturday, December 29 and 30.
Saturday night’s feature race is named for Robert Staats, the prominent owner/breeder who passed away in 2011 at the age of 69 at his home in Reno, Nevada.
Along with his wife Loretta, Robert Staats was active in the sport beginning in the early 1970s, with Bob Gordon handling the training duties for most of those years. Upon Gordon’s passing, Rick Plano and Bob Johnson conditioned the Staats performers.
Among those outstanding color-bearers have been Stand By, the brilliant New Zealand-bred race-mare and producer; her son Moxie, a 1:49.3 performer with more than $400,000 in earnings; Nemisis, a sparkling 1:48 winner; the popular mare Reno Rose; Bells To Be Rung; and the stakes-winning BG’s Prodigy, who was named after Bob Gordon.
Stand By was the horse who put the Staats stable on the map and she was his all-time favorite. The Down Under import had a 1:52 career standard and banked $255,000 in a brilliant career on the racetrack, then went on to be an equally outstanding broodmare.
She was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2010. Stand By produced nine foals and they have earned more than $1 million, with her son Moxie retired to stud at the Desomer Farm and becoming a top sire in his own right.
“Bob Staats was first and foremost a kind and classy gentleman,” said Cal Expo General Manager Chris Schick. “Bob raced top quality New Zealand imports and California Sire Stakes competitors for nearly 40 years. We are proud to honor his memory here at Cal Expo.”
