Silverhill Volo puts Cal Expo streak on line
By Mark Ratzky, publicity –
Cal Expo Harness
A $7,400 Open Trot that finds
Silverhill Volo aiming for his fifth straight victory and a $7,200 Filly and
Mare Open Pace with Bertha Vanation eyeing the hat trick are the marquee events
on Sunday’s Cal Expo card.
There will be 12 races under
the Watch and Wager LLC banner and things get underway at 4:55 p.m.The Open
Trot is scheduled as the third race, while the Distaff Open will occupy the
sixth-race slot on the evening.
Silverhill Volo, perfect in
his four outings at this meet, looks to keep the streak going in the Open Trot
while leaving from the assigned outside post in the field of nine.
A 10-year-old son of Muscle
Hill, Silverhill Volo is owned, trained and driven by Chip Lackey. He is eyeing
his 29th victory from 140 trips to the post, has $168,000 in his bank account
and sports a 1:55 1/5 mark.
Silverhill Volo has raced up
close and personal in all his wins here, including a coast-to-coast decision in
the Joe Lighthill two back. He was hard used while first over in his most
recent tally three weeks ago, pulling away by two and a half lengths while
making 3-5 look like a gift.
Mandeville could prove to be
the main rival for owner/driver/trainer Gerry Longo. The 9-year-old sidewheeler
had a second, a third and a fifth-place finish behind Silverhill Volo before
returning to his winning ways two weeks ago in a conditioned affair.
Leaving from the outside post
in the field of seven, he left into a pocket journey, then had the needed
response when asked in the lane and drew off by a length and a quarter. It was
the 31st snapshot in 142 trips to the post for Mandeville, who pushed his
earnings close to the $270,000 mark. He lands two slots inside his main rival
in the No.7 post for this go-around.
In the co-featured Distaff
Open, Bertha Vanation has posted back-to-back surprise scores at the top rung for
owners Bill and Cathy Dessert and driver/trainer Nick Roland, working out sweet
trips on both occasions. This time around she will be asked to depart from the
assigned outside slot in the field of seven.
Bertha Vanation
longshot players delight
Those who have backed Bertha
Vanation in her last two starts at the head of the distaff pacing ranks have
been nicely rewarded, as the mare clicked at 25-1 weeks ago and came back to
get the job done at 7-1 last Saturday evening.
The 6-year-old daughter of
Voracious Hanover is owned by Cathy and Bill Dessert and is trained and driven
by Nick Roland, who has been able to work out perfect two-hole trips with
Bertha Vanation for those two upsets.
“I’ve been with Cathy and
Bill for five or six years now and we bought this horse from her breeder John
Hendricks three years ago,” Nick related. “She got sick on us this summer and
kind of went off form, but the minute she got here she perked right up and
showed how much she likes this track.”
Bertha Vanation won her first
start at the meet, had to settle for minor awards in her next two tries, then
missed a couple of weeks before suiting up for the January 2 Filly and Mare
Open where she dismissed at 25-1 from the No. 2 slot.
“Because she’d missed some
time, she needed every bit of that two-hole trip and the moderate fractions to
get there by a nose,” Roland noted.
Nick admits he didn’t see
another pocket journey in Bertha Vanation’s future when she left from the No. 4
post in a compact cast last week, but the racing gods were once again in her
favor and she prevailed once more at the head of the class.
“I didn’t see it happening on
paper, but for whatever reason Brighten Your Life didn’t go and I left hard for
the top. I didn’t mind it at all when Delightfully Wild retook the lead and we
were able to work out another good trip.”
Upsets are often made of such
things.
