by Mark Ratzky, publicity department, Sacramento Harness Association

Sacramento, CA — Wednesday night means another edition of the popular Bal-Cal Pick 4 Challenge, which combines two races (races 10 and 11) at Balmoral Park in Illinois with a pair (races 9 and 10) from Cal-Expo. The $1 wager comes attached with a $25,000 guaranteed pool.

Combining these four cross-country winners can provide quite a payday, as evidenced by the many large returns that have been yielded by this unique bet. In a relatively short span last fall, there were Bal-Cal payoffs of $20,000, $19,000 and $18,000 for just the $1 investment.

The feature event on the local program is a $4,100 conditioned trot that is headed by Jam And Jelly and Howilddoyawantme. The former hails from the George Reider barn and is owned by Maurice Sigmon and Richard Reider.

A 3-year-old daughter of New And Notable, Jam And Jelly has won four of seven starts since being purchased privately and relocating from Indiana. After finishing second in two needed outings, she rattled off four in a row with Jim Lackey at the helm for those decisions.

The first two of those tallies came in similar fashion, as she sat a tracking trip early, made the winning move past the midway point, then came home strongly to get the job done.

In her next outing on July 28, Jam And Jelly found herself well back as the field made their way into the stretch, but she exploded in the late stages and was up by a neck.

The next week was easier, as she did the stalk-and-pounce move to perfection and drew off by two lengths when all was said and done.

She moved up a notch in class for last week’s assignment and turned in another solid try, although unable to match favored I Look Special in that affair. She finished well for the place, but was unable to threaten the choice, who had a clear lead as the field straightened for home.

Howwilddoyawantme is shooting for her seventh snapshot on the season from 25 trips to the post. Mary Ann Plano owns the mare with husband Rick doing the driving and training.

The dark-hued side-wheeler picked up her most recent win at this level back in late June, as she made a power move to the lead on the final bend and prevailed by nearly five lengths that night while establishing her 1:57.2 career mark. She has had to settle for minor awards in the interim, including back-to-back thirds with this caliber.

Live racing resumes at Cal-Expo on Wednesday, August 15, continuing through Saturday. Post time on Wednesday and Thursday is at 6:00 p.m. (PDT). Post time on Friday and Saturday is at 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday, admission is free, plus Cal-Expo offers a complete lasagna dinner, with salad and bread, for just $2.00.

Cal-Expo offers guaranteed $10,000 pools on all Pick-4’s!