by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal-Expo

Sacramento, CA — It had been rough going for the 4-year-old pacing mare Bewareofthisaffair following her Dec. 4 maiden breaker, as she failed to threaten in the next five attempts, but it was a different mare who showed up last week at Cal-Expo and the result was an emphatic victory, a $39 payoff to her backers and a new lifetime mark.

Bewareofthisaffair is a daughter of Hi Ho Silverheel’s who is the pride and joy of her owner/breeder Wendi Wiener, while taking her lessons from Nathalie Tremblay with Steve Wiseman the regular pilot.

“This is the filly that is my heart and soul, I can’t even explain the connection I have with her,” related Wiener, who was still recovering from the victory the following day. “Heck, I talk to her on the cell phone before each race — and she listens!”

The dark-hued pacer is out of the Camtastic mare Sanananna, who has also produced the other Wiener color-bearers Mamahaswhiskerstoo, Cold Affair and Bananafanafoes, each of whom are also very special to their breeder.

“BB Bug (Bewareofthisaffair) was born right here on my farm in Riverside,” Wiener related. “Like all my kids, she didn’t start until she was ready and never at 2. She won’t actually turn 4 until April 16. She had a major hive problem, but the cause of the allergies was found and now she’s perfect.”

It turns out Bewareofthisaffair has a secret weapon of sorts, which may have helped in her 18-1 upset at most recent asking.

“In the paddock, she wears a Tweety stuffed animal on her halter to play with,” her owner noted.

She abandoned the toy when she headed to the track, and several minutes later it was her seven distaff rivals she was playing with in the stretch, motoring by them to the delight of the longshot players. We suspect there wasn’t a happier owner all week.

Hastings definitely likes what he sees

Larry Hastings has been a fan of the trotters and pacers for as far back as he can remember, but it was only 10 years ago that he made the jump to owner and then trainer.

The 55-year-old conditioner has come down from his native Canada for the first time with eight performers, all of whom he owns himself, and has enjoyed the stay so much that he plans to stick around and make California his home base.

“Going from a fan to an owner all started one day when I was sitting with a friend at simulcasting,” Hastings related. “He said we should buy a horse. As fate would have it, shortly after that I was on a plane and who should sit right down next to me, but the racing secretary, who I had known back in school. He introduced us to a trainer and we bought a horse.”

That first pacer ended up going to the sidelines, and during that period Hastings learned the sport from the ground up.

“By the time he came back to the races, I had a training license, and it was probably two years later that I gave up the insurance business and devoted all my time to the horses.”

When asked about his favorite trainee, Hastings is quick to point out the 9-year-old Dugout Andee, who has won 14 of his 86 starts, including two of his last five over this track while closing in on the $100,000 earnings plateau.

“I’ve had him all his career and he’s really the horse who put me on the map up there,” Hastings explained. “He also gave me the freedom to expand the stable and one of the reasons I’ve come to Cal-Expo.”

And some of the other reasons?

“There are long breaks up in Alberta, the weather is awfully cold and I’d heard nothing but good things about this track,” he answered. “All the people have been great since I’ve been here, and I haven’t seen one day below zero,” finished a laughing Hastings.

Talk about your 1-9 shots.

Reunited and it feels so good

Luke Plano drove Coal Younger a few times last season, but hadn’t joined forces with Jan Crowell’s homebred for a bit when they got together again two weeks ago. The result has been a pair of coast-to-coast scores over sloppy tracks and they will attempt the hat trick in Saturday night’s (Feb. 6) 11th race.

“His manners weren’t all that good when I drove him last year, but he’s grown up and matured,” related Plano when asked about the 4-year-old son of Hi Ho Silverheel’s. “His main weapon is his tremendous gate speed, so I’ve tried to use it to our advantage these last two starts.”

The Jill Wine trainee was 9-2 when going coast-to-coast in the goo on January 21, with 2-1/2 lengths to spare at the wire, then rewarded his backers with $9 when doing an encore over another sloppy oval last weekend.

“The first race I was just looking for a good early spot, but he made the top and they pretty much left us alone,” Plano said. “Last week looked like a tougher field and we were also moving outside another couple of posts. We left strong, he got pushed pretty hard by Television Star to the quarter, but after that he wasn’t really challenged.

“He’s sharp right now, and when you give a horse like that his own way up there, he’s going to be pretty tough in the stretch. Every race is different, but generally speaking you want to be up close on sloppy tracks like those last two he caught, but a drying-out track can be tiring and work for the closers.”