A $20,000 USD California Sire Stakes for four-year-old pacing mares that brings out Stevies Girl and Made Of Misschief along with an Open Pace headed by A Major Omen are highlights on Sunday’s Cal Expo program.
Watch and Wager LLC is presenting 11 races with things getting underway at 5 p.m.
Stevies Girl is a daughter of Wind Me Up that was bred by Barbara Arnstine, who co-owns with Steve Chambers and trainer Kathie Plested. She will be making her first appearance since competing in the $65,000 Minnesota Championship at Running Aces in mid-September and had a sharp qualifier at Cal Expo last week with Mooney Svendsen.
Made Of Misschief is also making her first start since that Sept. 16 contest at Running Aces for owner/breeder Lanae Hernandez and trainer Bob Johnson with Luke Plano at the controls. She looked to be in need of qualifying mile and should be very much at home with this group.
Made Of Misschief is the 2-1 morning line favourite from post four in the fourth race stakes feature and 5-2 second choice Stevies Girl will start from the outside post six.
Completing the field are a pair from the Rene Goulet barn in Cenalta Token (Post 3, Jacob Cutting) and Cenalta Memories (Post 5, Goulet), the Bevan Perriton-trained Chandon (Post 1, Nick Roland) and Hot N Fancy (Post 2, James Lackey), who takes her lessons from Emilio Cisneros.
Looking at the $7,000 USD Open Pace set for the third race, A Major Omen just missed to Heavens Gona Rock in last week’s Dave Goldschmidt Free-For-All and gets top billing at 6-5 on the morning line for owner/driver/trainer Gerry Longo. She will start from the outside post five.
Allmyxsliventexas was a game third in the Goldschmidt while Major Offense and Dancin Lance both have Open scores to their credit at this meet and Reagan Blue Chip rounds out the cast.
Heavens Gona Rock scores for Team Cutting
Heavens Gona Rock picked a good time to go his biggest mile of the meet, flying home to get the job done in last weekend’s $16,892 Dave Goldschmidt Free-For-All Pace.
The five-year-old son of Pet Rock is owned and driven by Jake Cutting with his father Darryl doing the training.
Heavens Gona Rock closed out 2023 with a conditioned score at Cal Expo, but had to set for third-place finish in his two attempts at the Open level while being fanned extremely wide to the stretch on both of those occasions in solid outings.
He found himself last of the seven turning for home in the Goldschmidt, but exploded around rivals to the lane and was up by a half-length in 1:54.1 over favoured A Major Omen, who he had followed to the drive.
Jake Cutting is currently holding a double-digit advantage in the driver’s race while his dad has one of the best batting averages among the conditioners, making them a lethal pair.
A reminder that next week will find the trotters and pacers in action on Friday and Saturday night, with no racing on Super Bowl Sunday.
(With files from Cal Expo)