by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal-Expo

Sacramento, CA — Having completely dominated his peers at Cal-Expo, Rick Plano has sent Pacinello back East where he hopes a start in the $1 million Meadowlands Pace is in the colt’s future.

Pacinello has been nothing short of sensational here over the last few months, as the D&R Racing homebred son of Little Steven made a clean sweep of the four stakes and set a new track record for sophomore colts on May 9 with his 1:51.4 Sire Stakes romp.

He departs with a six-race win streak in tow, and his average winning margin from those outings is close to six lengths. It’s safe to say Pacinello has just been toying with his foes, but the water is going to get decidedly deeper in the coming months.

“He’s the best colt I’ve ever trained, and that’s saying something when you look at horses like The Starting Gate and some of the others I’ve had over the years,” Plano related.

“He’s not nominated to any of the stakes races back East, so we’ve sent him out to see how he does and then we’ll make a decision about supplementing. If he’s what I think he is, he deserves a shot in the Meadowlands Pace, but that’s going to be a lot of money to put up.”

Pacinello’s first stop on his Eastern foray comes this Sunday over the five-eighths-mile Tioga Downs track in New York.

“My son Luke is going to fly in to drive him and we’ll get a chance to see how he races over a smaller track. I’d like to race him three or four times in June and eventually move over to the Meadowlands.”

A tiger on the front end

This weekend will find Tiger Beach Boy shooting for his eighth win from 17 career trips to the post and his fifth tally from his last seven appearances for owner/trainer Nate Kemp.

The 3-year-old son of Jenna’s Beach Boy has one way to go these days, right down the highway, and these front-end tactics have earned him quite a few snapshots of late while doing his work with the high-end conditioned claimers.

Rewarding his backers at nearly 4-1 last week with Rocky Stidham at the helm, Tiger Beach Boy led them on a merry chase to prevail by 1-1/4 lengths while lowering his mark to 1:54.4 in the process.

“I found him on the Internet last year and went down to Kentucky to see him,” related Kemp. “When I got there, they hadn’t done much with him and (he) had a big belly, but I bought him and brought him to my place in Nevada for about five months.

“He got here around October and I wanted to give him all the time he needed and didn’t race him until he was 3. From day one, he didn’t want to sit behind anybody, and after some tries where we took him back, we decided to let him roll away from there now.”

Nate pointed out that if you draw a line through those efforts where he tried to teach him new tricks, Tiger Beach Boy has been in the exacta 10 of 11 starts.

“The first time we rated him he finished eighth, the next time sixth and the next two times he was fourth, so we finally decided the experiment was over and race him on the front end.”

Kemp added that his protégé has his own unique personality, including a penchant for grapes, and one thing they’ve learned for sure is that he doesn’t care for a busy whip.

“I tell the drivers not to fight him and when it comes to the whip, just lay it on his back at the top of the stretch and he’ll give you everything he has.”

It’s been working out nicely.

Focus on the amateur pilots

Amateur drivers and the working class pacers get a chance for some spotlight beginning this weekend in a pair of TVG Amateur Series events. A joint effort between Cal-Expo, the California Amateur Driving Club (CADC) and the California Harness Horsemen’s Association (CHHA), both series will feature two legs and then a final with an estimated purse of $8,000.

The first series will get underway this Saturday with two divisions and will continue the following two weekends. It’s a conditioned claiming event with base tags of $3,000 and $3,500 the first two weeks and no claiming on the finale. The second series is limited to fillies and mares under the same conditions and will have a July 11 start.

The CHHA and track management have been supportive of amateur racing since its re-emergence in the summer of 2005 when the State Fair, the meet’s current operator, took over.

“There is little doubt that the California Amateur program is the strongest-based one in the country,” said General Manager David Elliott. “Given the challenge of an ‘island meet’, amateur driving not only provides for a varied program for fans, but serves a purpose for lesser experienced drivers to be competitive and show to potential owners another side of ownership not available with thoroughbreds or quarter horses.”

CHHA Executive Director Jim Perez is also a strong supporter of these events.

“I applaud the efforts made by CADC over the years,” he said. “The CHHA thinks the Amateur Series provides some nice variety from our overnight program and the late-closing concept for our bottom level horses is an innovative and worthwhile endeavor that we are happy to support.”

CADC President David Siegel added, “The late closers are a great institution for drivers, trainers and owners. The amateurs get a chance to drive more competitively (against each other) and when else can one of our lower class horses race for an $8,000 purse?

“The Amateur Club is grateful for the support of Cal-Expo and the CHHA and the trainers are grateful for the purse supplements provided by TVG. This an example of a win-win situation that can occur when groups with a common goal work together to achieve common objectives,” concluded Siegel.