by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal-Expo

Sacramento, CA — You would be hard pressed to find a trainer/driver team putting together a more impressive daily double than the one Bob Johnson and Lemoyne “Mooney” Svendsen registered in last Saturday’s (March 7) first two races at Cal-Expo.

The pair kicked off the double with the come-backing Ultimate Desire, who romped home by over seven lengths in a 1:53 tour. They came right back in the next race to upset heavily favored Cowboy Hanover in the Open Pace, as Ivegotwhatuneed flew home to hang a head on the odds-on choice while also turning in a 1:53 performance.

Ultimate Desire is 3-year-old son of Real Desire who races for Pamela and Hei Mitchell and was winning for the fourth time from nine career outings. He was making his first evening appearance since competing in a $300,000 stakes race at Lexington last August.

“We gave him two races here last year, which he won nicely, then we raced him at Indiana Downs before going on to those stakes races in Kentucky,” Johnson related. “I actually went back there and spent some time with him, but he got a little sick and never really came back all the way.

“We gave him a chance to make that Kentucky Stakes final and he did, and I thought he had a chance if he drew an inside post, but he got the outside and that was that. The plan all along was to give him some time after that race.”

It certainly appears as though Ultimate Desire has come back strong as a 3-year-old, getting an excellent tune-up in last week’s romp as the 1-2 choice.

Johnson pointed out there is a stakes for the pacer in Pennsylvania in May, a late closer in Indiana after that and then the Kentucky Sire Stakes.

“We’ll just have to see how things play out,” he said.

The Johnson/Svendsen combination completed last Saturday’s early sweep with Ivegotwhatuneed, who races for the conditioner along with David Neumeister and Marty Garey. The son of Givemewhatineed, who recently went over the $200,000 earnings mark, completed a $15.80 daily double payoff with his barnmate.

Bob and Mooney added another victory that evening with Rod’s Famous Ribs, and came within a neck of recording a trainer/driver four-bagger with the up-and-coming Hi Ho Hi Ho a bit later on the card. Not a bad night’s work for any team.

It was a night for the closers

If you look over last Thursday night’s (March 5) card, you’ll see that only one horse from the 12 races was able to go wire-to-wire.

“The track was fine, but we did have a lot of rain the week before and it’s my guess that quite a few horses missed training,” Bruce Clarke explained. “When that’s the case, it’s going to be harder to go all the way because the horses are a little short and better off working out some kind of trip.”

One of the “front-end victims” on last Thursday’s card was Amber Delight, the 6-5 favorite in the feature race. Bruce handled this mare for his brother Edgar “Sparky” Clarke, carved out all the modest fractions but was overhauled by both the pocket-sitter Sintillating and stalking My Fanny when push came to shove.

Amber Delight looked tough on paper in that contest as she was dropping out of three straight tries at the Open level, and this fact was no doubt not lost on the bettors.

“Believe me, I didn’t want to be on the lead, but that’s the way it came up,” Clarke said. “I had to leave a little, because the two mares to my inside had no speed, and I was hoping to sit behind Sintillating or My Fanny, but they ended up dropping in right behind me.”

Had posts been switched, and Amber Delight been leaving from the rail and Sintillating had the four slot, Bruce’s dream scenario may have played out, but as it was he was doing all the work with the dark-hued mare and paid the price in deep stretch.

“I tried to walk once it was clear we were going to make the pace, and you can’t go much slower than :59.4,” he noted. “The two behind us got the trip, though, and that made the difference.”

For the record, last week’s Friday and Saturday cards saw eight horses from the 30 races able to make every pole a winning one.