This Friday’s main event at Cal Expo will be the $10,000 Kirk Breed Pace for pacing fillies and mares, with Hare To Eternity, Shark Festival and Mikeleh among the major players.

First post for the 12-race Watch and Wager LLC card is 6:15 p.m. and there is a carryover in the 50-cent Pick 6 of $12,279, with the sequence covering races six through nine on the card.

The supporting card includes an Open Handicap Pace that has been carded as the first race on the program and a California Sire Stakes for three-year-old trotters.

The Kirk Breed Pace is named for the man who was the executive director of the California Horse Racing Board and previously served as a board member and general manager of the State Fair at Cal Expo.

Breed passed away in 2013 at the age of 73 after a battle with cancer.

During Gov. Jerry Brown’s first term in 1979, Breed was appointed general manager at Cal Expo and was credited with turning around the event’s financial fortunes during lean times. He later became a lobbyist on behalf of the racing industry and also served eight years on the Cal Expo board of directors.

Breed served as executive director of the California Horse Racing Board from 2008 until his death. During those five-plus years, he oversaw the regulatory agency’s day-to-day business.

He was involved in such high-profile issues as the restriction of the use of steroids; the reduction of permissible levels of bute, and the transformation of the Santa Anita main track from a troubled synthetic to a dirt surface.

“In his years as executive director, Kirk Breed provided invaluable guidance and counsel to everyone who served on the board,” said former racing board chairman David Israel. “No one was more dedicated to assuring the welfare of the horse, the well-being of the participants and the integrity of the sport than Kirk.”

The Oklahoma native attended Oklahoma State on a football scholarship in the 1950s, while as the same time helping his father, who trained a stable of Quarter Horses. After graduating with a degree in zoology, Breed volunteered for the Peace Corps, spending time in Chile and Columbia and working at the State Department in Washington, D.C.

Looking at the Breed field, Hare To Eternity is a six-year-old daughter of Mister Big out of the Jennas Beach Boy mare Hare Trigger who races for the partnership of Arnstine, Chambers and Wiseman with Kathleen Plested training.

She went over the $100,000 mark in earnings when she sat a pocket trip and prevailed in a conditioned event on March 31, then stopped up to the Distaff Open two weeks ago and prevailed by a length over favoured Mikeleh after being up close and personal during the mile.

Mikeleh is a George Reider trainee who carries the banner of Little Bapa LLC. The Western Ideal mare made a big move to the lead in that aforementioned gathering at this level, showed the way to deep stretch and was unable to contain Hare To Eternity when push came to shove.

The Plested barn will also be represented by Shark Festival, a Shadow Play mare owned by Medinah Racing and Scott Ehrlich. She will be looking for her fourth win on the year from 10 trips to the post.

Rounding out the cast for the Kirk Breed are the Gerry Longo-conditioned pair of Sparkin Your Fire and Kiss On The Lips; Blue Note from the Rick Cisco barn; and the Lino Pacheco-trained Delightfully Wild.

The field for the sire stakes, from the rail out: Gravel Girl with Mooney Svendsen; Bo Plenty, George Luster; Indio Azteca, who will be guided by Steve Wiseman; Never Onebadchange, Pierre Girard; Lodi Puppycat with Luke Plano; and Lodi Jazz Player, who will have the services of Chip Lackey.

(Cal Expo)