by Mark Ratzky, publicity department, Sacramento Harness Association

Sacramento, CA — Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet can keep Unida Hanover from her appointed rounds, which is why this mare has landed in the winner’s circle so often. The Ed Hensley trainee turns up in Wednesday night’s (Feb. 14) main event, which is designed for pacing distaffers and offers a $5,200 purse.

From her 46 appearances last season, Unida Hanover landed in the winner’s circle 13 times, and she’s taken up this year right where she left off, with four victories from her six trips to the post. Her 2006 campaign also saw her establishing her career mark of 1:53.4.

The Jessica Hensley color-bearer started off this season with a hat trick, putting her versatility on display during the course of those tallies. The first came from a stalking spot, the next was done in front-end fashion, with the third registered with a strong closing punch from the back of the pack.

Unida Hanover had tough outside posts in her next two outings, on both occasions suffering from a poor cover flow, and was unable to make the needed impact. She got her revenge last week, however, as she suited up over a sloppy track and proved a punctual public choice.

Hensley was able to leave into a nice tracking position in that affair, attacked into the stretch and was too much for them in the drive to win going away by nearly two lengths. She is obviously the one to beat as she fits perfectly with this kind and just loves to get her picture taken.

Bal-Cal offers handicapping puzzle

Wednesday night means another renewal of the popular Bal-Cal Pick 4 Challenge, which combines two races (races 10 and 11) from Balmoral Park in Chicago, with two races (races 9 and 10) from Cal-Expo, and comes attached with a $25,000 guaranteed pool.

There have been some monster payouts in the $1 wager, including jackpots of $20,000, $19,000 and $18,000 last year. For a little help in putting together a Bal-Cal ticket, we went to Scott Ehrlich, who does double duty at Cal-Expo, as both the track announcer and director of publicity.

Scott spent many years calling the trotters and pacers in Illinois before coming to Cal-Expo, so he’s in a unique position, as he has handicapped and announced this wager from both sides.

“My advice to the fans would be to get the program a few days in advance, and watch the replays via the Balmoral website (www.balmoralpark.com), for those horses in the Bal-Cal races. You can sign up for free to watch them through that website, and what better way to look at those racing than by watching their last race, and looking for horses that got in trouble, etc.

“I’d also suggest having the charts from each card that those horses raced on. I’d do that to check for a bias, not to mention a variant. It’s been very cold in Chicago recently, and times can be deceiving, if you don’t compare them to other nights.

“After that, the obvious angles are driver changes and post switches. Of course, I’d suggest the same replay watching approach for fans batting on Cal-Expo, where it’s free to watch the replay of our races on our website (www.sacharness.com), as well.”

Post time for the first leg of the Bal-Cal Challenge will be at approximately 8:19 p.m.

Live racing resumes at Cal-Expo on Wednesday, continuing through Saturday. Post time each night is at 5:35 p.m. On Wednesday, admission is free, plus Cal-Expo offers a complete Lasagna dinner, with salad and bread, for just $2.00.

Guaranteed Late Pick-4 pool every Friday and Saturday

Sacramento Harness Association at Cal-Expo continues to offer a $20,000 (guar.) Late Pick-4 pool every Friday and Saturday, on races nine through 12.