By Mark Ratzky, publicity – Cal Expo Harness
Everybody should get a call
as good as the one Luke Plano got from owner Mark Hinshaw last month.
“He said he was looking for a
winter home for his trotter Pridecrest and asked if I was interested,” Plano
related. “I’d seen him race a little at Hawthorne and didn’t waste any time
saying yes.”
All Pridecrest has done in
two starts at Cal Expo is win back-to-back Open Trots by a combined 16 lengths,
including a track-record 1:53 2/5 tour of the Sacramento oval two weeks ago.
“He’s a big strong horse with
a tremendous gait and he doesn’t waste any action,” Plano explained. “Going
into that first start here he had that solid resume and had trained well, but I
can’t say I was expecting a mile like that one.
“He was pretty aggressive
that night and was setting some strong fractions, but I wasn’t sure how he was
going to be in the stretch, and it turned out he was super.”
Pridecrest wheeled back in
last week’s top dance for the trotters and was equally impressive getting the
job done from the outside post in a field of nine. He was first-over to command
going to the final bend and went on to another romp at 40 cents on the dollar.
“I wanted to see if he would
be manageable and he was, although we did get stuck behind some poor cover for
a bit there. Once again, he was very strong in the stretch and very
impressive.”
Annette Funicello Pace
brings out distaffers
The $8,200 Annette Funicello
for pacing fillies and mares headed by Cenalta Call Girl highlights the program
on Friday night at Cal Expo.
First post under the banner
of Watch and Wager LLC will be 6:10 p.m. and the action will continue on
Saturday evening with the $20,000 Alan Horowitz Memorial being the main event.
Friday’s featured contest is
named for actress/singer Annette Funicello, who passed away in April of 2013 at
the age of 70. Annette Funicello was married to harness horsesman/breeder Glen
Holt from 1986 until her death and was a strong supporter of the sport.
Cenalta Call Girl is a
3-year-old daughter of Allamerican Merlin who is owned by Rene Goulet and Helen
and Myrna Empey with Goulet doing the driving and training. She comes into this
assignment having captured two of her six lifetime appearances.
Cenalta Call Girl recorded
her first decision at Northlands Park in late September, surging on the money
to be up in the final strides, then made her Cal Expo debut a winning one in
the Funicello Prep last weekend as she did the stalk-and-pounce to perfection
and drew off to a length and three-quarters score as the 3-2 favorite in a 1:55
2/5 performance.
Free Radical completed the
exacta in that affair at 13-1 to make a nice move forward in her second outing
over this layout since arriving from Minnesota. The Hot Pans offspring competes
for Set The Pace Racing LLC and is reined and trained by Nick Roland.
Rounding out the cast are Be
My Lucky Girl with Steve Wiseman; Alwaysalittlemore, Luke Plano; Rockin Repeat,
David Siegel; My Hearts Conquest with William Hernandez; and Nat-A-Katt, who
will be guided by Edward Hernandez.
