by Mark Ratzky, publicity department, Sacramento Harness Association

Sacramento, CA — Holme Town Girl and Reno Rose, second and third under similar conditions last week, and Astroglider, a talented invader, figure to get most of the attention in Wednesday’s (October 10) $4,400 feature at Cal-Expo for pacing fillies and mares.

Astroglider is a 4-year-old daughter of Albert Albert and the Bret Hanover mare Glider, who competes for Alan Kirschenbaum, takes her lessons from Denise Maier, and will have Tim Maier in the bike.

Overall, she has accounted for five of her 55 appearances with $83,000 in her bank account and a 1:54.3 mark that was set in March at Woodbine. She got a nice prep in a qualifier here last week where she prevailed by a nose.

Holme Town Girl carries the Desomer Stable banner with Etienne Desomer at the controls. From a dozen trips to the post this year, she has come away with four wins, three seconds and a pair of third place finishes.

The bay miss recorded back-to-back scores on August 17 and 31, romping home by over eight lengths in the former and setting a new career standard of 1:54 in the latter decision. She picked up minor prizes in her next pair, then was a solid runner-up behind favored I Need A Miracle at most recent asking.

Reno Rose is a 3-year-old Givemewhatineed homebred from the Bob Johnson barn and will have Luke Plano giving directions. The Bob and Loretta Staats color-bearer is gunning for her fourth win on the season from 14 appearances and has $63,000 in earnings and a 1:54.4 mark.

Away from the wars for three months, Reno Rose returned to action with a sharp win two weeks ago, as she rode live cover to the drive and ignited when it counted to be on the right end of a nose photo with I Need A Miracle. She was no threat behind that same rival in last week’s clash at this rung, but did come a sharp :27.3 final quarter to pick up the show money.

Autumn Tides makes things even more interesting, as the Gregg Pistochini owned, Gilbert Herrera reined-and-trained mare has proven to be a good fit with these since coming in from Indiana Downs. The Jenna’s Beach Boy offspring was third in a blanket finish in her local bow, then was first-over in her last try and paid the price at crunch time. Oh My Sydney and New York Doll N round out the field.

Jump right into Bal-Cal pool

Wednesday night means another renewal of the popular Bal-Cal Pick-4 Challenge, the $1 wager that combines the last two races (races 10 and 11) at Balmoral Park with the final pair (races 10 and 11) from Cal-Expo and comes attached with a $25,000 guaranteed pool.

While last week’s payout was on the modest side, there have been jackpots of $20,000, $19,000 and $18,000 over the last year.

So sharpen those pencils and take a shot! Post time for the first leg of the Bal-Cal Challenge will be at approximately 8:23 p.m. (PDT).

Championship night on Saturday

Saturday evening will be Championship night for the 2-year-olds, with a quartet of $32,500 events on tap for the younger trotters and pacers. There are clear leaders in the two filly divisions, while the colts will try to sort things out over the weekend.

My Fanny has made a clean sweep of the filly pacing events for Team Plano, including the most recent stakes clash two weeks ago where she lowered her career standard to 1:56.4 in the process.

It’s been the same story for Smooth Jazz among the distaff trotters, as the Denise Maier trainee is unbeaten in five appearances, including impressive scores in all four of the races that come attached with a trophy.

The Plano barn accounted for the first two contests for the pacing colts with Themaninthewindow, but he hit a speed bump in that last big-money affair when the Bob Johnson-trained Rod’s Famous Ribs followed his cover to the lane and overpowered him on the money.

Meanwhile, Entomologist has taken two of the races for the trotting males, while Stars And Sites won the other. The latter looked awesome in the initial added-money race, had a setback and was forced to scratch from the second, then made a break and lost all chance at 30 cents on the dollar in the most recent.

Live racing resumes at Cal-Expo on Wednesday (October 10) continuing through Saturday. Post times are scheduled for 5:35 p.m. (PDT). On Wednesday, admission is free, plus Cal-Expo offers a complete lasagna dinner, with salad and bread, for just $3.00.