from Harness Publicists across North America

Friday’s (December 26) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from Northfield Park and Cal-Expo.

Boxing Day Mares Open Pace to Lady McJate

Northfield, OH — Jack and Sue Ann Myers’ Lady McJate ($26.00) upset 1-5 Look To Book in Friday’s Mares Open Pace at Northfield.

The winner moved three-wide around the final turn to go by Cheetah Feet, whose first-over bid stalled, and the favored leader to post a 2:01.1 win over a deteriorating track rated ‘good.’

Andy Shetler trains and drives Lady McJate, a McJate mare who won for the fifth time in 23 seasonal starts after missing all of 2007. Look To Book finished second and Time By Sevens used the inside passing lane to edge Cheetah Feet for the show money.

— Keith Gisser

Reno Rose is a thorn to her foes at Cal-Expo

Sacramento, CA — Conditioned and claiming pacing mares, racing for a $4,000 purse, were featured on Friday night at Cal-Expo, in which Reno Rose showed her class.

Coming away third from post position one in the field of nine, driver Jim Lackey would put his charge in a spot where traffic wouldn’t be a problem, but was that the best for his mare?

“I’m not crazy about racing her on front anymore,” said Lackey. “But I thought if the fractions weren’t too tough that I’d still have a solid chance.”

Moving to the outside 3-16ths of a mile past the start into a :28.3 opening quarter, Reno Rose would clear to the front at the three-eighths pole. Did Lackey have to use the soon to be 5-year-old?

“I didn’t use her too bad because Luke (Plano) was kind to me when yielding with Fishy’s Sushi. Still, I wasn’t sure how she’d do on the lead.”

Reaching the half-mile marker, timed in :58.2, Reno Rose would get the cue past the five-eighths station when Lackey untucked his whip, then would pop the earplugs midway through the final bend.

“Sometimes when she’s good, she likes to get rolling in the turn because she has a reasonably good brush for three-eighths of a mile. This versus a wicked brush for a quarter of a mile at this point of her career. And since it looked like the strongest horse on paper was Holls Park Place (Rick Plano) — who was locked in — I figured if I could get away from her a little that it would help my chances.”

Now being urged to and at the three-quarter pole, timed in 1:27.2, Reno Rose would respond and lead by two lengths with a quarter of a mile to go, but Lackey wasn’t counting his chickens before they were hatched.

“I still wasn’t sure she was a winner because recently, when on the lead, I never know how long she’ll last because it hasn’t been her place to be lately.”

Now under strong urging in the lane, Reno Rose wasn’t going to let her opponents get close.

“She always tried very hard and was probably wondering why I was driving her so hard, but I kept after her to keep her to her task on the front and she didn’t fail me.”

Owned by Ron and Charles Mansfield in partnership with Joshua Schoeneman, the Jim Wilkinson, Jr. trained mare would win ($3.60) by 2-1/2 lengths in 1:56.1. Charter Ridge (James Kennedy) finished in second and Elegant Emma (Rich Wojcio) finished another three-quarters of a length farther back in third.

“I was really happy that she won and finished the year good,” concluded Lackey.

— Scott Ehrlich