by Scott Ehrlich, publicity director, Sacramento Harness Association

Her pilot was in a ‘pickle’ whether he ducked or left, but her pilot also has 4,672 winners for a reason, and the most recent of those victories, which was behind Kievline, can mostly be attributed to her handler.

The seven best lady pacers on the grounds at Cal-Expo met up on Friday night (June 23) in a $6,000 Open Handicap lll event, in which Kievline was up to the task.

In advance of starting from post-position six in the field of seven, trainer and driver Rick Plano knew he had more than an ordinary chance, but he also showed respect for his competition.

“I thought my horse raced well in her last off of one qualifier — given she had been off a couple of months,” said Plano. “I thought I could definitely be close, but I didn’t know if I could outclose Jm Lucky Girl (Robley Johnson), and probably thought I couldn’t. That meant my other option was to get up as close to the front as possible and get as far away from Jm Lucky Girl (Post 7) as I could. But, I didn’t really want to be on the front because the front wasn’t playing very well for the speed.”

Urged at the start to leave, Kievline would clear to the front midway through the first-turn with Plano immediately taking a hold of his charge while on their way to an easy first-quarter, which certainly pleased Plano.

“Lo and behold the quarter was in :29.3 — and when I took a peek and saw that everybody was lined up — that was pretty good. I still, however, wasn’t liking the front and was actually looking for someone to come for the lead. Since no one did, I needed to gear her down as much as I could to slow the pace down to offset the bias. Given that, I hadn’t used my horse and Jm Lucky Girl was sitting last, and that was pretty helpful.”

With Plano’s plan to set a moderate second-quarter mile, the fairly headstrong Kievline had other ideas.

“She wanted to ramble a little faster than I wanted her to go, but again, since nothing had won on the front to that point, I took a decent grip of her and continued to rate her.”

Reaching the half-mile pole, timed in a very soft :59, Plano, of course, was happy.

“When I saw the :59 first-half, I knew that was very good. I also knew that I had to pace a fast third-quarter because the back markers would be coming.”

With the field now approaching the middle of the final-turn, Plano would urge his mare.

Elegant Emma (Rich Wojcio), who was in the pocket behind me, started to move out on me, so I urged my mare to get her going as fast as she could go from that point on.”

Pacing a :28 third-quarter while reaching the three-quarter mile marker, timed in 1:27, the signs for Plano were good.

“She still felt pretty good and wasn’t tired, so I knew if she had another good quarter in her that she was going to be very close.”

With Plano pretty confident about his mare’s ability in the final quarter, the question was what about the strong closing favorite Jm Lucky Girl?

“I heard Jm Lucky Girl coming because I could hear Robley (Johnson) asking. At that point I was concerned because I didn’t know whether I was going to hold on or whether Jm Lucky Girl would eventually get by me. When we entered the stretch I kicked out the earplugs and she paced a little stronger. Then at the seven-eighths mile pole I started to urge her strongly as I saw Jm Lucky Girl kicking into gear and getting within about two lengths of me, which continued to have me concerned. Inside the last sixteenth of a mile though, I felt that my mare was strong and that Jm Lucky Girl was weakening because she wasn’t pacing to me like she was in the middle of the stretch. As a result, I knew at that point I was a winner.”

Owned by Plano’s daughter Erica, the down-under Kievline wouldn’t be denied while winning by three-quarters of one length, in 1:55.2, which equaled a seasonal best.

“I beat the bias because I got a very lucky first-half, but she still raced excellent off my second start with her off two months,” Plano finished.

Jm Lucky Girl finished in second, and Tawny Reserve (Luke Plano) finished another 1-1/4 lengths back, in third.