‘Athlete’ Wants Another Win

Published: February 1, 2018 02:10 pm EST

Im An Athlete, fresh from an upset at the head of the class, will look for a repeat mile in Saturday night’s featured $6,000 Open Pace at Cal Expo.

A 12-race program will be on tap under the Watch and Wager LLC banner with first post set for 6:10 p.m. The main event will has been carded as the third race of the evening.

Im An Athlete is an eight-year-old son of Art Major out of the Cams Card Shark mare Female Champs who races for Ronand Rettig-Zucchi, is conditioned by Jessie Pacheco and will be handled by James Kennedy.

In last week’s top dance while leaving from the demanding outside Post 9, the veteran left into a mid-pack spot, tracked the swift fractions to the stretch, and came home smartly to seal the deal by a length and a half in a 1:52.3 performance.

Completing the exacta in that affair behind the 13-1 Im An Athlete was the 15-1 Almost Cut My Hair. The four-year-old goes about his business for owner Hank Wieseneck, trainer Bob Johnson and driver Nick Roland, and has posed for snapshots following two of his last five outings.

Last of the nine in the early stages of last week’s top dance which saw blazing fractions of :26, :55.1 and 1:24, Almost Cut My Hair put in a strong late move to be up the place spot.

Rounding out the cast will be Ragins Flight with Steve Wiseman, Cantholdbackthemack with William Hernandez, Eastender for Luke Plano, and Jazzmanian Devil, who will have the services of Mooney Svendsen.

The guaranteed gross pool for the 20-cent Pick 4 has now been raised to $40,000. Both the Pick 4 and the 50-cent Pick 5 at Cal Expo offer a reduced 16 per cent takeout rate.

(With files from Cal Expo)

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