An Open Pace featuring Im An Athlete and Allmyxsliventexas and a Filly and Mare Open Pace that will bring out Delightfully Wild and Directing Traffic head the marquee for Saturday night (March 31) at Cal Expo.
Im An Athlete and Allmyxsliventexas put on quite a show at the head of the class last week. The duo will get another chance to settle the score in the co-feature and will leave from the Post 6 and 7 outside post positions, respectively.
Im An Athlete is an eight-year-old son of Art Major who carries the banner of Ronald Rettig-Zucchi, is trained by Jessie Pacheco, and will once again have James Kennedy giving directions.
After some tough trips from difficult posts in his previous two miles, Im An Athlete returned to his winning ways last week. He was able to leave into a pocket trip behind the odds-on Allmyxsliventexas, tracked that one to the drive, and was up by a nose in a 1:52 mile.
Allmyxsliventexas is a five-year-old homebred who competes for Wayne and Rod Knittel and takes his lessons from Bob Johnson. He will have Mooney Svendsen back at the controls on Saturday.
The hard-hitting performer had three straight victories heading into last week’s Open, including a dead-heat in the Glen Holt Memorial and a career-best 1:50.4 mile in his next outing despite being parked the mile that evening.
In last week’s clash, the Knittel colourbearer shot right to the front for Svendsen, opened a lengthy lead at midstretch but could not quite hold off the pocket-sitting Im An Athlete in what was another strong outing.
Nightly, Cal Expo offers two wagers that come with a reduced 16 per cent takeout rate – the 50-cent Pick 5 and the 20-cent Pick 4.
The Pick 4 comes with a $50,000-guaranteed gross pool on Saturdays and a $30,000 guarantee on Fridays.
Last Saturday night’s Pick 4 returned a nifty $1,922 for each correct 20-cent ticket and would have paid $1,716 using the regular takeout. That’s $206 bonus for each ducat.
(With files from Cal Expo)