from Harness Publicists across North America

Sunday’s (Jan. 17) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from Dover Downs and Cal-Expo.

Callahan wins seven on Sunday at Dover

Dover, DE — I’m Outtahair, Corey Callahan’s fifth of seven winning drives, won the $16,500 feature on a rainy and foggy Sunday at Dover Downs.

Fotowon photo

Corey Callahan won seven times on Sunday, including the $16,500 feature with I’m Outtahair.

Red-hot Callahan chalked up an impressive score by driving Gary and Barbara Iles’ homebred I’m Outtahair to his second straight victory in 1:53.3. The son of Badlands Hanover-Hair She Goes held off runner-up Bushwood Z Tam (Tony Morgan), with Allamerican Shaker (Ross Wolfenden) third with a strong stretch effort.

One race later Jon Roberts guided Wendy T up on the outside to score a 1:57.1 victory, her first of the year, in the $14,000 co-featured event for fillies and mares. George Dalphon and Elanor Laws own the Western Terror-Web Paige mare. JK Cameo (Vince Copeland) led until late in the lane before finishing second. Kentucky Charm (Ross Wolfenden) was along in time to finish third.

— Marv Bachrad

Mil Amores clobbers his foes at Cal-Expo

Sacramento, CA — It wasn’t an easy field by any means, but you wouldn’t have known that by the way Mil Amores won. Conditioned pacers, racing over a sloppy track for a purse of $4,400, were featured at Cal-Expo on a Sunday that saw the start of a predicted period of wind and rain.

In advance of starting from post four in the field of five, owner/trainer Gilbert Herrera was respectful of the “easier” opponents he was facing.

“For him taking a class drop, it was still a pretty tough field with a lot of class horses in there,” stated Herrera. “I thought if I could get to the front easy, that he could be tough. But my strategy depended on if Deep Red (Rocky Stidham) was going to leave.”

Coming away in fourth position, but in front of the ducked Deep Red, Herrera moved his charge to the outside an eighth of a mile past the start and had him quickly moving up and into the lead past the quarter-mile pole, timed in :31. Pacing a soft :30.3 second quarter considering strong backside tailwinds, Mil Amores reached the half-mile pole in 1:01.3 for his confident pilot.

“Off that half I didn’t think they could beat me.”

Taking a brief look back before getting to the final turn, a sharp Herrera, while knowing his competition, asked his pacer to go on a little.

“I know that Ultimate Desire (Bruce Clarke), who was in the pocket behind me, is a nice horse, but was also making his first start back since July. I assumed they didn’t want to rough him up the first time so that’s why I asked my horse to go on. When I did, he responded pretty well and I wasn’t even touching him around the final turn — he was doing it on his own. When we reached the three-quarters, I was sitting pretty comfortably.”

Opening up the lead at the five-eighths station and expanding the lead midway through the final turn, the 5-year-old found himself on top by three lengths at the three-quarter marker, timed in 1:30.2, then continued to lengthen his advantage in the lane while Herrera high-lined his pupil the length of the stretch while never urging him.

“I just let him pace while knowing nobody was getting close to me and he was very good down the stretch.”

Winning ($10.20) under a grip by four lengths, the son of Artsplace stopped the timer at 1:58.4. At Last (Rick Plano) surged at the wire after a nice late rally to be second, and Deep Red, who closed and raced fine, finished just a quarter-length farther back in third.

“He raced pretty good,” concluded Herrera.

In the second race on Sunday, all good things came to an end for the talented mare One More Molly, as the 5-year-old had her outstanding 11-race win streak come to an end.

Stuck with the outside slot in the field of a half-dozen for trainer Tim Maier, a mixture of a sloppy track in rainy/windy conditions, combined with being first-over, were just too much to overcome in a fourth place finish.

— Scott Ehrlich