Mystery Dragon, who has posted three impressive victories since arriving from Canada, looms an overwhelming favourite in Saturday night’s $8,300 Bill Conlin Memorial Pace.

An 11-race card is on tap under the Watch and Wager LLC banner with first post set for 6:10 p.m. The Conlin will be contested as Race 6.

Mystery Dragon is a three-year-old son of Mystery Chase who is owned and trained by Richard Schneider. He will once again be handled by Nick Roland. He has dominated his rivals in all three of his appearances during the current meet.

Sent off at 2-1 in his local debut on November 11, Mystery Dragon came first-over for Roland at the half and went on to a convincing three and a quarter-length decision which lowered his lifetime standard to 1:54.1 in the process.

Mystery Dragon was a punctual 4-5 choice at next asking after having been hard-used early to command from an outside slot. He was then the 3-5 chalk in last week’s Bill Conlin Prep and did not disappoint his many backers as he never looked like a loser on the front end and came to the line with a length and a quarter on Richellu Cowboy.

The latter is another Canadian-bred miss who races for Quentin and Kimberly Schneider with Quentin the conditioner and Steve Wiseman in the bike. She was able to leave into a nice trip in last week’s prep and came home well to gain the place spot in an improved effort.

Rounding out the field are Lilbitofmama with James Kennedy; Herecomesthethundr, William Hernandez; He Grins Again, Luke Plano; Crash And Burn with Chip Lackey guiding; Lilmessinaround, Ryan Grundy; and Hes A Navajo, to be piloted from the outside by Tony Succarotte.

Bill Conlin was a longtime sportswriter, editor and columnist for the Sacramento Bee that passed away in 1997 at the age of 84.

“Bill Conlin, quite simply, is a legend, a real newspaper man who loved his work and his hometown of Sacramento like no other,” related Sacramento Bee columnist Debbie Arrington.

“With great wit, he covered sports and more in this city for six decades, first at the Sacramento Union and then The Bee. He [knew] everyone – from Ronald Reagan to Al Davis – and was a daily presence in The Bee’s Sports section until his retirement in 1985.

“Through it all, harness racing remained one of his favourite sports, both to cover and to watch as a fan.”

Arrington noted that when Conlin passed away in June of 1997, Cal Expo’s harness drivers paid tribute to him in the winner’s circle before the race named in his honour, which was won by the great pacer and sire Little Steven.

“It’s wonderful that Bill’s name still lives on at Cal Expo in a sport that he truly loved,” Arrington added.

(Cal Expo)