by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal-Expo

Sacramento, CA — After going winless in his first 17 starts, the 4-year-old Karen’s Rowdy One trotter KD Nicol has now rattled off back-to-back victories for the ageless pair of owner/trainer/breeder Keith Willey and driver Tom Parris.

He will try to make it three in a row in Friday night’s (April 30) 14th race, where he is coupled with stablemate KD Amazin Spirit, who is seeking his fourth straight win. Willey will handle that performer, while Parris is back in the bike behind KD Nicol.

“KD Nicol was named after our good friend Nicol Tremblay, who passed away the year before he was born,” related Willey. “KD Nicol and KD Amazin Spirit were born the same year and were raised and usually jogged and trained together. Tom started with Spirit and I took Nicol at first, and we worked to getting them to finish together at the wire.

“During the qualifiers, I had trouble getting Nicol off the gate without breaking, so I switched Nicol to Tom and he was successful in keeping him flat and I seemed to mesh better with Spirit.”

Parris, who turned 77 this week, and Willey, who will be 76 in September, are really enjoying all these recent trips to the winner’s circle.

“I’ve known Tom for about 20 years and we are both military retirees. Tom was an Air Force medic and I started my Army career as a medic before I switched to guided missiles. We really started to become close friends about eight years ago after Tom came to our farm to train his horses.

“Every day we sit around at the farm and have a cup of coffee together before we start working with our horses. We tell each other old war stories and work out our plans for the day. It is a lot of fun.”

It was a couple of years ago during one of these chats that Keith asked Tom why he hadn’t upgraded his license to P driver, and the explanation was that he couldn’t get enough qualifying drives in the necessary year.

“I offered to give him drives on my horses and talked to some of the other trainers and owners like Dario Solaris, Chris Hernandez, Norm Honath and others to give him Q drives. So in addition to Q drives on his horses, we were able to get him enough good drives for his P license in less than a year. He got his first win exactly one year later and the second win the following week with K D Nicol.”

Will the rich get even richer?

Next week will find the third round of Sire Stakes action for the 3-year-old trotters and pacers, and we’ll find out if there’s going to be any movement among the division leaders.

Franks Best can boast of the most trophies to this point, having won three of five stakes clashes last year while dominating his male trotting rivals in the two big-money events decided this season, while his male pacing counterpart Dancing Barry isn’t far behind with four on his mantle, including both of this year’s gatherings.

Among the distaffers, both the pacer Upncoming Prospect and trotter Acapulco Gold won their respective first stakes attempts back in early November, but hadn’t captured another added-money event until last week when they both posted upsets.

Amateur drivers to be back in action

Fresh from their victory in the recent East-West Challenge, the local amateur pilots will be competing in two upcoming late-closing series here at Cal-Expo, the first one beginning next Saturday, May 8. They are exclusively for amateurs and sponsored by TVG.

Each series will feature two legs and a final with an estimated purse of $8,000. The first series will be decided over three consecutive Saturdays and is a conditioned/claiming event with tags on the first two legs of $4,000 and $4,500, plus allowances.

Horses that have competed in $4,000 “C” level and lower claiming races after April 20 at Cal-Expo are eligible. Nominations will close on Monday, May 3. The second series for bottom level claimers will be run in September. Complete details of the series are available at www.thecadc.com/2010Series.pdf.

The California Harness Horsemen’s Association and track management have been supportive of amateur racing since its re-emergence in the summer of 2005 when the State Fair, the meet’s current operator, took over.

“There is little doubt that the California Amateur program is the strongest track-based one in the country,” said Cal-Expo general manager Dave Elliott. “Given the challenges of an ‘island meet,’ amateur driving not only provides for a varied program for fans, but serves a purpose for lesser experienced drivers to be competitive and to show to potential owners another side of ownership unavailable with thoroughbreds or quarter horses.”

Live racing resumes at Cal-Expo on Friday (April 30) and Saturday (May 1) at 5:55 p.m. (PDT) both nights.