by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal Expo Harness

Sacramento, CA — A Stitch In Time has won 13 of his 19 starts, with a growing number of stakes trophies on the mantle, but his runner-up finish in last week’s Open Pace at Cal Expo impressed pilot Mooney Svendsen as much as any of those victories.

The 4-year-old homebred son of Kent’s On Nuke, who carries the banner of Mark Anderson and hails from the Gordie Graham barn, flew home for Svendsen in last week’s assignment but came up short of catching the free-wheeling front end favorite One And Only that evening.

“That was as a good a race as he’s ever gone for me,” Svendsen related. “He came that final quarter in :26.2 and he would have definitely won if we would have come first over and not had a roadblock ahead of us.

“This is one of the best horses I’ve driven since I’ve come out here and an amazing California-bred. I knew he was something special right off the bat, when he broke his maiden at Running Aces last year in 1:54 and absolutely flew by everybody once I pulled him out.”

A Stitch In Time has rattled off four straight Sire Stakes victories since the middle of November, proving clearly the best on each occasion as the prohibitive favorite.

“He just stands out with that group,” Svendsen noted. “You can pretty much do anything you want with him. I just want to make sure I don’t make any mistakes and he’s going to do the rest.

“You have to remember that he’s only just turned 4 and is lightly raced, so his best races figure to be still ahead of him. He’s a real nice one to have and it should be a lot of fun down the road.”