by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal Expo Harness

Sacramento, CA — There will be a Pick-5 carryover of $14,190 on Saturday’s (March 5) Cal Expo card with a guaranteed gross pool of $40,000, all thanks to a $115 winner and a nose photo in the Pick-5 sequence last Sunday.

The Pick-5 is a 50-cent wager that features a reduced 16 percent takeout rate and covers the first five races on the program. There is a 25 percent minor pool payout.

Last Sunday evening’s Pick-5 started with Tour Guide getting her first snapshot of the year for Steve and Vickie Desomer while returning $11 to her backers.

Gentle Dragon proceeded to blow up the toteboard in the second race by posting that 56-1 shocker. Owned by Tereso Orantes, trained by Lester Smith and handled by David Siegel, the latter mare had missed the board in her first four appearances on the year, but turned things around in a big way.

The upsets continued in the third race as the classy 9-year-old trotting veteran Franks Best hung a nose decision on 2-5 favorite Winsom Kelly, who needed another stride to make his closing kick count.

Juntique continued the trend in the fourth stanza at $24 for owner/trainer Robert Bell and pilot Mike Jarvis, and nobody had all five winners connected despite the fact that the 3-5 choice My Little Susie proved best in the fifth race Sire Stakes for the 3-year-old trotters.

In addition to the Pick-5, there is also a reduced 16 percent takeout rate offered on the 20-cent Pick-4, which comes with a $40,000 guaranteed gross pool on Saturdays and $25,000 on Sundays.

Sire Stakes bring out top trotters, pacers

A pair of California Sire Stakes headline the Saturday night action at Cal Expo, with Sandy’s Song looming large in the $15,000 trotting event, while Smash, Avila Beach and Speak English continue their rivalry in the $10,000 pacing mares division.

A 12-race card is on tap under the Watch and Wager LLC banner with first post set for 6:15 p.m. The action continues Sunday evening with a $10,000 California Sire Stakes for 3-year-old pacing colts in the spotlight.

The 4-year-old pacing mares event finds a rematch between Smash, Speak English and Avila Beach, who were in a blanket finish in the most recent added-money clash on Feb. 5. Smash and Speak English dead-heated for the victory, with Avila Beach a nose back in third.

Smash is conditioned by Junior Wilkinson, who co-owns with Billie Schwartz; Speak English races for Frank Nevarez with Tim Clevenger calling the shots and Luke Plano at the helm; while Avila Beach competes for Wayne and Rod Knittel with Bob Johnson training and Mooney Svendsen in his usual spot in the sulky.

Avila Beach has been very sharp since the last stakes get-together, recording two wins and a near miss. In a conditioned event last weekend that featured all three of the stakes mares, she was used early, tracked to the lane and came home smartly to win going away while lowering her career standard to 1:54.4 in the process.

Looking at the trotting contest, Sandy’s Song is a daughter of Claudius Augustus out of the Sacramento mare Ahh Saundra who is owned by Bob Johnson and Hank Wieseneck, is conditioned by Johnson and will have Steve Wiseman handling the lines.

The bay mare comes into this assignment having posed for pictures following 11 of her 19 trips to the post with a slew of stakes trophies on her mantle.

In the first big-money clash of the season for the division two weeks ago, she was sent off the 1-9 favorite but could not quite match Get Ziggy in the late stages and had to settle for second. Racing two weeks ago in the Jim Grundy Trot, she proved to be a punctual 3-5 choice. Wiseman used her early for position, brushed to the top for good at the half and then held safe by a neck that evening.