By Mark Ratzky, publicity – Cal Expo Harness
George Reider admits his barn
“hasn’t been lighting them up so far” at this meeting, but he’s optimistic that
things are headed in the right direction.
“We had a good meet this
summer at Running Aces,” Reider noted. “At the end of that meet we purchased a
few horses and now it’s just been a case of getting to know them.”
One pacer in the barn that
George is really pinning his hopes of is a 2-year-old who answers to the name
of Pride of the Sierra. “I think he’s going to be a real nice colt. We’ll be
qualifying him in a few weeks.”
Meanwhile, the Reider barn of
14 is starting to warm up and you can look for him to bemaking his share of
winner’s circle appearances in the near future and through the end of this
session in the spring.
George also mentioned that
he’s very pleased that his good friends Nick Roland, Jessica Johnson and Terry
Kaufman are among the new connections competing here at Cal Expo “They’ve
really added to our races and I’m so glad to see them competing here.”
Pair of Opens sit atop
the marquee
A $6,600 Open Pace featuring
Jazzmanian Devil and Firedrake and a $5,500 Distaff Open Pace headed by Sparkin
Your Fire and Capitol Hill are the main events on Friday night’s Cal Expo program.
Jazzmanian Devil is a
6-year-old son of Sand Shooter from the Artsplace mare Artbeat who is owned by
William Condon, takes her lessons from Kathie Plested and will have Mooney
Svendsen giving directions.
The long-fused performer
looped the field to prevail at 6-1 in the November 4 Open, had to settle for
the show money at this level the following week, then got back to his winning
ways at most recent asking as he came home in a sizzling :26 flat to get the
job done by a neck.
Firedrake also has two Open
victories to his credit at this meeting for Set The Pace Racing LLC and
driver/trainer Nick Roland. The Dragon Again gelding has posed for snapshots
following 11 of his 20 starts on the year with a 1:51 2/5 lifetime standard
that was recorded at Running Aces over the summer.
Firedrake accounted for the
October 28 top dance despite a tough trip from the demanding No. 10 post and
also captured the November Open as the 3-5 favorite, but has had to settle for
a third and fifth behind Jazzmanian Devil in the other two contests for the top
pacers on the grounds.
Looking at the Filly and Mare
Open, Sparkin Your Fire carries the banner of Peg Hoffman with Gerry Longo the
conditioner and Mooney Svendsen handling the lines.
She got a nice prep race in
her local debut in the November 25 distaff Open, then stormed home to prevail
at 9-2 in the most recent clash at the top level for the pacing fillies and
mares while taking the measure of favored Capitol Hill.
The latter mare won three of
her four outings at this Open level between November 4 and November 25 and had
to settle for second in the most recent clash after being hard used on the
front end. George McChrystal and Kathie Plested own, Plested is the trainer and
Steve Wiseman will be in the sulky.
There are two wagers offered
here each night that come with a reduced 16 percent takeout rate, affording
players the chance to gets some real value.
They are the 50-cent Pick 5,
which is decided on the first five races of the evening; and the 20-cent Pick
4, which covers the penultimate four contests on the program. The Pick 4 comes
with a $30,000-guaranteed gross pool.
