by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal-Expo

Sacramento, CA — Friday night (Sept. 17) will find the second leg of the TVG Amateur Driver’s series at Cal-Expo, with the pacers eyeing next weekend’s $8,000 finale for the working-class performers.

Robert Stepien experienced both ends of the spectrum in last week’s opening leg, as he captured the first division with Long Last Look for trainer Earl Kennedy, but suffered some poor racing luck in the other contest with his trainee Candy Girl as she lost all chance with a break.

“Long Last Look was big that night,” Stepien related. “He wanted to pass horses from the start. I caught cover behind Freedom Art, but that one stalled around the last turn. I looked ahead and saw that Dave Siegel was getting away up front with Magicality, and even though I didn’t want to go three wide that early, I had no choice if I wanted to catch him.”

Long Last Look did just that, coming a :27.4 final quarter to get the job done by a head over the even-money favorite.

“He really responded and took flight,” his pilot praised. “He didn’t tire at all and could have gone another quarter of a mile if needed.”

Long Last Look was claimed from that event and will go postward this weekend for new owner/trainer/driver Rick Bertrand. Stepien will be guiding Candy Girl, who is owned by Robert along with Veronica Lopez and landed the cozy one-hole in the full field.

“Candy Girl was actually very good last time, but she got locked in and hates to be bottled up,” Stepien explained. “She caught the wheel disk of another horse and made a brief break. I think she might be the sleeper in this series, because she was better than she looked.”

TVG is a proud sponsor of the Amateur series, and TrackMaster is supporting the event by giving away free programs and selections. They can be found at www.trackmaster.com/calx.

Live racing resumes at Cal-Expo on Thursday (Sept. 16) and continues through Saturday (Sept. 18). Approximate first race post time is 5:45 p.m. (PDT).