The $20,000 Alan Horowitz Memorial for pacers is the main event Sunday evening (Jan. 2) at Cal Expo and it comes up extremely contentious, with last week’s second leg winners Hay Hay Alright and Western Devil among the major players.
Watch and Wager LLC will present nine races and first post is 4:55 p.m. The main event will go as the seventh event on the evening.
Hay Hay Alright comes into the Horowitz having posed for pictures following two of his last three outings for his owner/trainer/driver Ryan Grundy. Overall, the seven-year-old son of Vertical Horizon will be looking for his 22nd victory from 104 lifetime trips to the post.
Sent off at 7-2 last week while leaving from the outside post in one of two leg two divisions, Hay Hay Alright sat back early for Grundy as is his custom. He exploded when tipped very wide off the final bend and swept past the leaders for a length and a quarter score with the 1:55.1 clocking being just a tick off his career standard.
Western Devil also got the job done while leaving from the outside slot in his division, returning $55 with driver/trainer Nick Roland guiding the Cathy Dessert colour-bearer to a neck decision over even-money favourite Gear Upn Go Moe. Rene Goulet will now handle the lines and they will do their work from the No. 5 slot for the final.
Gear Upn Go Moe was an impressive winner in the first leg and was coming on nicely at the end last week to just miss. The 11-year-old goes about his business for John Schwartz and Kyle Husted, takes his lessons from Quentin Schneider and Husted will guide from the No. 2 post position. He is the 3-1 morning line favourite.
Completing the cast are Frisky Pedro, Northbrook Ron, Fox Valley Hoss, Dancin Lance, Paddy Murphy, Villa For Rent and Machet Time.
Sunday’s Alan Horowitz Memorial is coming up pretty tough, but Luke Plano has plenty of confidence in his protégé Frisky Pedro, who leaves from the cozy inside post.
Frisky Pedro is a six-year-old Iowa-bred who went coast-to-coast in the slop in his division of the opening leg of the Horowitz, then suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in last week’s second leg while doing his work from an outside post.
“The horse caught my eye at Hoosier in September,” said Plano, who claimed him for $8,000 for Nikki Hudson and Dave and Kimberly Haness.
“He’d won a couple of cheaper races pretty nicely and I was looking for a horse to claim for this series. Being an Iowa-bred was the icing on the cake, because it made him eligible for the diamond alliance.”
Frisky Pedro was in pretty steep in his first few California appearances, but it was all systems go in the first leg of the Horowitz as he flew away from there and was never threatened over the off going.
“Last time he drew outside and there was a lot of speed in there, so I took back,” Plano explained. “I flushed out the horse I wanted to follow, but he wasn’t too good on the last turn and I had to come three-wide earlier than I wanted.”
With the inside draw for the final, Plano obviously has more options this time around.
“We’ll just leave out of there and see how it plays. It’s a tough field, but I know he has the ability.”
Cal Expo will add a $25,000-guaranteed Hi Five pool on race nine after last night's wager went unsolved. There is a 7,000+ carryover to start on the 20-cent wager.
There is also a $3,107 carryover in the 20-cent Pick 6, which covers races four through nine on Sunday’s program.
In addition, each night Cal Expo offers three wagers with a reduced 16 per cent takeout rate – the 20-cent early and late Pick 5 and the 20-cent Pick 4 – with the latter featuring a $25,000 guaranteed gross pool.
Cal Expo past performances are available on the Trackmaster website.
(With files from Cal Expo)