by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal-Expo

Sacramento, CA — Little Bit Country and driver/trainer Steve Hyman had a couple of very important factors working in their favor in last week’s Cal-Expo victory over a conditioned field.

For starters, the daughter of Little Steven was dropping in class from the Open ranks where she was chasing some pretty sharp distaffers, and she was also fortunate to catch a track that seemed to be favoring her closing style.

The result was a neck score as the 9-5 choice in a sprightly 1:54.4, earning Little Bit Country a ticket back to the Open level. She’s no stranger to handling top company, as she did come with a big finish to prevail on December 19, but four disappointing efforts followed before last week’s class relief.

“It’s almost like she took the holidays off after that win in mid-December,” Hyman related. “To be honest, this has been a pattern of hers over the years. Sometimes I think she’s going to go a big race, and she doesn’t give me anything, and other times she surprises me with a big finish.

“She really didn’t go all that much better last week than she had in the previous few races where she was finishing fifth and sixth, but the difference was she was looking around in the stretch and wasn’t seeing mares like Don’t Tempt Me and Sintillating.”

Despite her somewhat inconsistent form, Little Bit Country doesn’t have to apologize to anyone. The 6-year-old miss is closing in on $130,000 in earnings and has a 1:53.3 mark that was established here as a sophomore.

“She’ll keep racing this year, we don’t have any plans to breed her,” Hyman added.

Wiseman closing in on milestone

Steve Wiseman, who is coming off another solid week that saw him land in the charmed enclosure several times, comes into this week’s action needing just eight victories to reach the 1,000 win plateau.

Hernandez gives OK to longshot

OK Reilly N and his owner/driver/trainer Chris Hernandez have joined forces for two wins from their last four outings, including a $58 upset in coast-to-coast fashion at most recent asking.

The 11-year-old New Zealand-bred pacer has certainly banked his $75,000 the old-fashioned way, with his 1:54.4 career standard being established four years ago over this layout.

“The story on Reilly is one in a million,” Hernandez related when asked about his longtime trainee. “Years ago, when he came over from New Zealand, it was a real rough boat ride that took something like 19 days.

“A broker came by the barn and asked if I was looking for a horse, and he said everybody was passing on this one due to his being very sick from the trip and losing so much weight, not to mention the fact that he bites, kicks and charges at you.”

As you might guess, Chris decided to pass on OK Reilly N and didn’t give it another thought until the following weekend when his wife flew up from Corona and heard about the imported pacer that nobody seemed to want.

“When she heard about the horse being for sale, she said we had to take him,” the story continued. “It turns out her grandmother Mary, who had passed away at 91, was the subject of a newspaper clipping that been saved by the family for a very long time.

“The headline from the New York paper read ‘Mary Reilly marries John Reilly married by Father Reilly’. She said we couldn’t pass on a horse with that name.”

And so it goes.

The storm before the calm

Caviart Annie kept her local record perfect last week with her third straight victory, but her owner/driver/trainer John McKeon admits it was a little more excitement than he wanted with the promising 3-year-old trotter.

As the field was getting ready to come to the gate, Caviart Annie reared up and sent McKeon to the ground, running off an eighth of a mile before being caught. After both horse and driver were checked out, she was allowed to start and recorded the hard-earned neck victory while lowering her mark to 1:58.4 in the process.

“There were some kids playing football on the grass at the north end of the grandstand, and she saw the ball in the air and must have thought it was coming at her,” McKeon explained. “She went straight up in the air and sent me to the ground. Billy Don (Wainscott) did a great job to catch her before she got too far away.

“They took the bike off her and then gave her the OK to race, but I guess there’s also a rule about checking out the driver if they hit the ground, so they also had to look at me. Once she got back on the track she was relaxed as can be and went about her business.”

Interestingly, Caviart Annie was 3-5 on the toteboard when the gate was set to roll the first time, but drifted up to 7-5 by the time the race started. She was caught in a bit of an early tussle before tucking second, was out and moving again into the final turn, secured a clear lead once straightened for home and then held safe over Belle’s Message for the tally.

“She wanted to leave off the gate and I didn’t want to fight her, even though I would have preferred to drop in right away,” McKeon related. “We were finally able to sit in at the quarter, but I didn’t want to get caught in too long because I sensed that Belle’s Message was going to be out and moving behind us.

“The leader still had some fight when we came to him, but we got clear into the stretch and when my filly saw the horse coming, she picked it up again. I tried not to hit her until near the wire, and I probably tapped her two or three times and she responded.”

John related that Caviart Annie is an April foal which means she’s still a couple of months away from her actual third birthday, so he wants to give her plenty of time.

“The plan is to only race her about every three weeks, with one week completely off in between.”