by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal-Expo

Sacramento, CA — This weekend will find the third round of Sire Stakes action at Cal-Expo for the 3-year-old trotters and pacers, with the fillies spotlighted on Friday (May 7) and the colts doing their thing on Saturday night (May 8), while Saturday will also feature the opening leg of the TVG Amateur Driver series.

Looking at the two stakes for the males, Franks Best has dominated the trotters with victories in five of the six stakes clashes for the division, while Dancing Barry has four trophies on his mantle. Both have swept the first two big-money gatherings this season.

Among the distaffers, the pacer Upncoming Prospect and trotter Acapulco Gold both accounted for the first Sire Stakes clash back in November, but hadn’t tallied again in big-money competition until two weeks ago, when they both registered upsets in their respective contests.

Meanwhile, the local amateur pilots will be competing in two upcoming late-closing series here at Cal-Expo, the first one beginning this Saturday. They are exclusively for amateurs and sponsored by TVG.

Each series will feature two legs and a final with an estimated purse of $8,000. The first series will be decided over three consecutive Saturdays and is a conditioned/claiming event with tags on the first two legs of $4,000 and $4,500, plus allowances.

Pacer boasts impressive batting average

Oneout Inthe Eigth was a pretty easy winner in the mud last week to the delight of those who took 40 cents on the dollar, upping his record to five wins from eight starts for owner/breeder Elliott Gorov and Jim Lackey.

The 4-year-old is bred to be a good one, calling Power Of Art dad while being out of the solid Life Sign mare Thisjointisjumpin. He got a bit of a late start to his career when debuting last summer at Indiana Downs, but is doing his best to make up for lost time.

“He’s cut out to be a nice one,” Lackey related. “The mare has thrown Oneten Inthe Shade, who was a champion before she was hurt, and Ridge Jumper, who has earned about $300,000.

“Oneout Inthe Eigth had problems with a bad back when we were first trying to get him to the races, and we could never quite get him right. Then Bernie Wolin told us about a chiropractor in Indiana last summer, and he did some work on him and it hasn’t troubled him since.”

The dark-hued pacer made his debut a winning one at Indy last August, then returned to California and closed out his 2009 campaign with another tally. He is three-for-six this year, with his tally last week being his first evening appearance since early February.

“We gave him a little time off by design, and he’s come back well,” Lackey informed. “In a few weeks, we’ll have to make a decision about where he’ll go. I’ve known Elliott since the 1980s, and he’s been in this business a long time, through the thick and the thin. He deserves to have a nice horse.”

Brooks eyes Handicapping Challenge crown

Dale Brooks, one of the finalists for Friday’s (May 7) $10,000 Spring Harness Handicapping Challenge, earned his berth in the finale by correctly tabbing all seven winners in last week’s second qualifying round.

The Lakewood resident, who works as a poker dealer, pulled off this feat at Los Alamitos. His winners ranged in price from Big Gun, who clicked at $9.20 for Gene Vallandingham, to Oneout Inthe Eigth, an odds-on choice with Jim Lackey.

“I’ve been following harness racing for a long time,” said the 64-year-old native of Northern California. “My favorite horse is Hi Ho Silverheel’s, and I used to love to watch him race.”

Dale can be found at Los Alamitos every night the trotters and pacers are in action. In addition to Cal-Expo, he noted that he enjoys following the simulcast action from the Meadowlands, Balmoral Park and Maywood. Now that he has put his handicapping prowess on display, he was asked what goes into making the decisions.

“I’m a big believer in the last quarters, and that’s where I like to concentrate. I also watch the post parade and warm-ups. Of course, I couldn’t do that for the contest, so I stuck to my standard fare and those last quarters.”

As you might expect, in addition to qualifying for Friday’s finale with his perfect card, Brooks also had a good evening at the windows.

“My friends were giving me a pretty rough time about it, but it was all in fun.”

Good luck to Dale Brooks and all the finalists who will be vying for the $2,500 first prize on Friday. By the way, you can download free Trackmaster Platinum Past Performances (12 lines) for this racing card at www.trackmaster.com/calx.

Amigo De Garcia is back with friends

Alan Kirschenbaum’s Little Steven homebred Amigo De Garcia has been getting closer to his peers with each try, and he’ll attempt to take another move forward in Saturday’s (May 8) third round of 2010 Sire Stakes action.

A 1:57.1 winner here last season, the Tim Maier trainee has checked in fourth in both stakes clashes this season, but was much closer in the most recent gathering two weeks ago when he was beaten 2-1/2 lengths by the division leader, Dancing Barry.

“Amigo De Garcia is named after my friend and sometimes partner, Greg Garcia,” Kirschenbaum explained. “We created the comedy ‘Yes, Dear,’ together, and he went on to create ‘My Name is Earl.’ His production company is Amigo De Garcia, so it seemed like a fun name for a horse.”

The dark-hued pacer is out of the Precious Bunny mare Jethica Tandy, who has also produced stakes victress Little Bit Country and Little Gary Perry.

“They both had high speed, but also had some mental quirks, and Amigo De Garcia is no different. The horse is talented, but a little immature, and Greg jokes this is very apropos for an animal named after him.

“Like I often say, we can’t control when it will all click in for them, so sometimes you just have to bite your lip and let them figure it out. He seems on his way to doing just that; whether it will happen in time for him to show his best in a stakes race, we’ll find that out over the next three weeks.”

Alan is referring to the fact that following Saturday night’s stakes event, there will be one big-money contest for the 3-year-olds in the near future, that being the $25,000 Championship set for May 22.

Last week, Kirschenbaum was unanimously elected President of the California Harness Horsemen’s Association for 2010 after serving as interim President since January 24. Owner Dave Haness was re-elected as Vice-President of the organization.