by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal-Expo

Sacramento, CA — Vic The Brick showed quite a bit of promise for Steve Hyman when he began his career two years ago at Cal Expo, but when he broke a bone in his leg while training at the end of that campaign, his trainer figured that would be the last he would see of this son of Hi Ho Silverheel’s as far as racing was concerned.

“His owner and breeder Alan Kirschenbaum gave him a year of green grass, and then he called me up and said he wanted to get him back into training,” Hyman related. “Because of what he showed us at 2, he certainly deserved the chance.”

Fast forward to Thursday night (Dec. 16), where Vic The Brick is gunning for his third straight trip to the winner’s circle while moving up a notch in class. While his two scores have come against relatively easy company, it has to be considered an accomplishment when you take into account that he was away from the wars for over a year.

“To be honest, I’m disappointed he hasn’t come back better, especially when he went the first 16 races without a win,” Hyman said. “Maybe we were just racing him too high, because when we dropped into a soft claiming level, he came to life.”

In his Dec. 2 score, Vic The Brick was parked the entire mile from the outside post, but just kept on trucking and showed plenty of heart that night to win clear. Last week’s victory saw him doing the track-and-pounce to perfection for Hyman as the even-money choice.

“I think it’s actually been a combination of the class drop and his getting a little better, and this week we’re going to find out a lot more. This is a tougher group than what he’s been facing, so it should be a good test.”

There will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday night harness racing this week, then the trotters and pacers will take a week off before returning to action on Thursday, Dec. 30. There will be a special Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve program at 3:40 p.m. (PST), and a Jan. 1 card to officially welcome the 2011 season.