By Mark Ratzky, publicity – Cal Expo Harness
The Evictor changed tactics
last week to post a coast-to-coast score with William Hernandez, pushing his
lifetime earnings past the $522,000 plateau.
The 10-year-old trotting son
of Valley Victory is owned and trained by Gordie Graham and was posing for
pictures for the third time this season from nine trips to the post.
“This horse raced against
some of the best trotters in the country and has a lot of back class,” Graham
related.
“Having said that, when I got
him about four years ago he was in pretty bad shape and the first thing I did
was to give him eight months to rehab. It was a slow process with a lot of
ice.”
Graham explained that he
prefers to race his horses from off the pace, especially the ones like The
Evictor who have issues, but Hernandez called an audible in last week’s outing
that saw the trotter setting all the pace on the way to a nearly five-length
score.
“When he saw the speed horse
Windsun Galaxie make a break and not many horses on the gate, he made the
decision to send,” Gordie noted. “The horse showed his class.”
His owner/trainer explained
that keeping The Evictor in race shape is a challenge. “With all his issues,
there’s a lot of tubbing and rubbing, but it’s all that more rewarding when he
goes a mile like he did last week. He absolutely loves to race.”
Allymx’sliventexas gets
the marquee treatment
Allymx’sliventexas, coming
off a sensational mile at the head of the class where he was parked the mile
and still gutted out a 1:50 4/5 score, gets the top billing in Saturday night’s
featured $6,000 Open Pace.
There will be 12 races
presented by Watch and Wager LLC with a first post of 6:10 p.m. and the main
event is scheduled as the fourth contest on the evening.
A 5-year-old homebred son of
Hi Ho Silverheel’s out of the Distinguishedbaron mare Annie Get Your Gun,
Allymx’sliventexas races for Wayne and Rod Knittel with Bob Johnson
conditioning and Mooney Svendsen in his usual spot in the bike. He has been
assigned the outside post in the field of six.
Allmymx’sliventexas went over
the $100,000 earnings plateau with last week’s tally and established a new
lifetime mark with the 1:50 4/5 clocking. Sent off the 7-5 choice in that
affair, he was parked the mile from the No 8 post, but refused to give up and
prevailed by a neck over pace-setting Bettor’s Promise.
The latter is a 7-year-old
son of Bettor’s Delight who goes about his business for Richard Morita and
David Yamata, takes his lessons from Lino Pachecho and has Chip Lackey at the
controls.
Third in the Glen Holt
Memorial on March 3, he carved out all the fractions in last week’s clash at
the top rung and battled it out gamely to come up just short as a 10-1 shot. He
has three wins here this season, including a 1:52 lifetime-best performance
last month.
Rounding out the field are
One And Only, who gives the Lino Pacheco barn two looks at the outcome; the
Luke Plano-trained Eastender; the Jessie Pacheco-conditioned I’m An Athlete;
and Some Playa from the Jen Sabot barn.
