by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal Expo Harness

Sacramento, CA — Richard Remillard has made his first trip to Cal Expo from Canada this season with 11 performers in tow, and he relates he’s having a great time.

“Everybody here has been treating us great, it’s nice to get away from the cold and I can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed the driving and training so much.”

A 62-year-old native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Richard has always been around horses and fell in love with the trotters and pacers when introduced to harness racing by his brother-in-law as a teenager. He has spent most of the last 40 years dividing his time between his day job as a meat cutter and market manager and driving and training horses while maintaining a ranch in Winnipeg.

“It was only about two years ago that I decided to concentrate solely on the horses,” he explained. “My partner Val recently retired and after taking to Quentin Schneider, we decided to come down and give California a try before we get too old.”

When asked about his all-time favorite performers, Richard mentioned Incognito Chris, Elkinin and Baylor Out, the latter being one of the pacers who made the trip down with him for this Cal Expo invasion.

Pridecrest sets sights on Open Trot encore

Saturday’s program at Cal Expo is highlighted by a $6,600 Open Trot featuring Pridecrest and the Annette Funicello Prep for pacing fillies and mares. Watch and Wager will present 11 races on Saturday and the action gets underway at 6:10 p.m. with the Funicello Prep going as the third race on the evening and Open Trot occupying the sixth-race slot.

Pridecrest is a 5-year-old son of Angus Hall out of the Wesgate Crown mare Spilled Milk who is owned by Mark Hinshaw and is reined and trained by Luke Plano. He comes into this assignment with $174,000 in his career bank account.

Making his Cal Expo debut in last week’s Open, the Plano representative could not have been more impressive. He went immediately to the lead from his outside post, set the fractions without pressure and cruised home with nearly 10 lengths to spare.

The 1:53.2 clocking shaved a second and four-fifths off the lifetime mark he established earlier this season at Hawthorne and he appears to be very much at home over this layout. He will be asked to do his work from the outside post in the field of nine this weekend.

Talking Tootsie was the 8-5 favorite in last week’s top dance for the trotting set and will be looking to make amends after finishing fifth that evening. Martin Garvey and Hank Wieseneck own, Bob Johnson trains and Mooney Svendsen once again has the assignment.

The Cantab Hall mare was a winner at Pocono in her previous outing, doing the track-and-attack to perfection for a lifetime best 1:54.4 clocking over that Pennsylvania five-eighths-mile oval.

Completing the field are Franks Best, Cadet, Becky Badger Baby, Franky Provolone, Silverlode, One Chief and Itzaziam.