by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal Expo Harness

Sacramento, CA — The fastest mile of the meet belongs to Mysharona Bluechip, who made his Cal Expo debut a memorable one two weeks ago when he covered the journey here in a sparkling 1:51.4 with Tony Succarotte in the sulky.

The 4-year-old pacing son of Rock N Roll Heaven is owned by A Piece Of The Action LLC and trained by Gene Vallandingham, and was coming in from the East where he had a 1:49.3 tour at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono earlier in the season.

“He had trained giant and I expected that kind of mile from him,” Vallandingham related after the score. “Before the race, I told Tony that he just might be the best horse he’d ever sat behind, and he didn’t disappoint us.

“I can tell you one other thing, there’s a lot more where that came from and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Vallandingham, who celebrated his 76th birthday in September, is currently training 30 performers and while he has more than 3,500 victories in his career as a driver, he hasn’t seen evening action in the sulky for more than a year and a half.

“I broke my hand and had it operated on, and it really hasn’t come back 100 percent,” Vallandingham explained. “To be honest, the training has become a full-time job so I don’t know if I’ll get back to driving as long as I have this many horses.”

Vallandingham was asked if he gets more nervous watching a race from the sidelines, as opposed to be being in the bike.

“I don’t get nervous,” he said without missing a beat. “If something happens and the horse ends up in trouble, it could have just as easily happened if I was driving.”

Mr Pearl eyes encore in featured pace

Mr Pearl, who overcame the No. 10 post to win at this level last week, heads the cast for Friday night’s (Dec. 9) $4,200 pacing feature.

There will be 13 races conducted under the Watch and Wager LLC banner with first post set for 6:10 p.m. The headliner goes as the 10th race on the evening with a full field set to face the starter.

Mr Pearl is a 4-year-old son of Always A Virgin who races for A Piece Of The Action LLC with Gene Vallandingham training and James Kennedy once again handling the lines. He closed from last to win by a head with this group last weekend and leaves from the No. 7 slot for this assignment.

Prodigal checked in third that night and has to be respected for owner Mark Anderson, trainer Gordie Graham and pilot Mooney Svendsen. He was a 1:53.4 winner at Running Aces this summer.

Value in Cal Expo ‘Pick’ wagers

Both the 20-cent Pick-4 and 50-cent Pick-5 here at Cal Expo feature a reduced 16 percent takeout rate, and looking at last Saturday night’s Pick-5 payout shows just how much value that equals.

The winners of the Pick-5 that kicked off the program were 6-5, 5-1, 9-5, 17-1 and 5-1, respectively, with each winning ticket returning a hefty $10,336 for the 50-cent investment.

Using the regular takeout rate, the payoff would have been $9,229, a difference of a cool $1,107 for each ticket holder. Now that’s value.

The 50-cent Pick-5 will once again get the card started here Friday evening, while the 20-cent Pick-4 is decided on the penultimate four contests on the 13-race program.