by Mark Ratzky, Cal-Expo publicity department

Sacramento, CA — John McKeon recorded an owning/driving/training double one week ago with his trotting mares Gia Hall and Southwind Sierra, with both of them getting the job done in game style.

McKeon, who retired from his day job as a 747 pilot two years ago, was very pleased with the performances from these two distaffers, who rewarded their backers with payoffs of $18.00 and $7.00, respectively.

Gia Hall is a daughter of Garland Lobell who has always had a lot of potential, but her mentor admits there have been some bumps along the way, which have prevented her from showing her best of late.

“She’s had several injuries, and some of them have come because she likes to play so hard in the pasture and ends up cutting herself,” McKeon related.

“She had one on her hind leg that kept me from training her on the beach the way I like to, but now that’s healed up and she’s back to her regular routine. She’s got a bit of gate speed, and I sent her away from there because it didn’t really look like anybody else wanted to go. It turned out Hans Rynningen sent Meringue, so I just sat outside her until we hit the backstretch and let my mare roll.”

Gia Hall was clear at the half, withstood a strong first-over challenge from Meringue turning for home, opened up again at mid-stretch and then had enough left to stave off the second-over K D Shenanigans for a neck score while lowering her lifetime mark to 1:59.1 in the process.

“I changed her to an open bridle, and when she sees the challenges she fights back,” McKeon said.

As for Southwind Sierra, she was able to open by nearly double digits at the midway point, then held safe by just over two lengths as the second choice in her mile. She was making her second start since being away from evening action from mid-June to earlier this month.

“She was in the same class as Gia Hall, and I didn’t want to have an entry where someone else had to drive one of these mares, so I just gave her a couple of qualifiers.

“She’s had her problems at the gate and with some breaking issues, but I’ve changed the shoeing and she seems to be much better now. She had the rail and nobody left the other night, so I let her go. Once she gets around that first turn she’s fine, and she just opened up on her own once we hit the backstretch.”

Live racing will resume at Cal-Expo on Thursday (July 24) and continue through Saturday (July 26).