This weekend will find the renewal of sire stakes action at Cal-Expo for the sophomore trotting and pacing set, while the popular East-West Amateur Driving Challenge will also take place on Friday and Saturday night.

The challenge will feature four local amateur pilots against a quartet from the east, and they face off in four races on Friday and four more on Saturday to decide the winning team.

Representing California are Rick Bertrand, Chris Hernandez, Dave Siegel and Robert Stepien, while the invading group is made up of Dave Ehrenbert, Tony Verruso, Kelly Walker and Tom Williams. The local drivers have won three of the first four events, but the easterners have assembled an extremely strong team and are seeking some revenge for their 2009 defeat.

Meanwhile, the top California three-year-old trotters and pacers will square off this weekend in the Spring Stakes Series. Friday’s program will feature the distaff trotters and pacers going for the big money, while Saturday highlights their male counterparts.

There will be three rounds of $15,000 events over the next six weeks, and then the $25,000 championships will be decided on May 22. We’ll find out if the two-year-olds who played the leading roles last season can continue the momentum, or if some new faces will be taking bows in these added-money events.

Looking at Thursday’s headliner, this is a $2,900 contest for pacers that finds Inconvenient Truth, Bolero Twister and Arch Nemeses getting top billing. Inconvenient Truth is a Chris Schick homebred from the Rick Plano barn who has been beaten a total of a neck and a head in his last two appearances at the level.

Bolero Twister is a three-year-old who carries the banner of Linda Magnusson and takes his lessons from Tim Maier. He picked up his most recent victory at Cal-Expo on February 20 in coast-to-coast fashion, then finished third last week behind longshot Red Star Ruffles and Inconvenient Truth after carving out all the fractions. Arch Nemeses was first-over in that mile for Nathalie Tremblay and Wendi Wiener and weakened to check in fifth as the favourite.

Williams looking forward to Challenge

Tom Williams is one of the four invaders in this weekend’s East-West Amateur Driving Challenge, and the business owner from Charlotte, North Carolina has been a mainstay in amateur harness racing for 11 years.

Williams was named the Amateur Driver of the Year in 2008, and last season saw him become the first amateur to win the East Driving Championship, the Midwest Driving Championship, as well the overall point championship.

“I’ve owned horses with Mark O’Mara for many years, and we won the 2001 Gold Cup Final at Freehold with a horse named Bystem that we co-owned," related Williams. “Mark was the one who suggested I get a driver’s license, which I did in 1999 at Hoosier Park.

“He always said that owners should sit behind a horse and really get a feel what happens in a race. When you do, you’ll soon find out that horses can be difficult to handle and don’t always respond the way you would like. Most important, they don’t have a gas pedal or brake, but what a ride!”

Williams’ 2009 driving statistics are certainly solid, with eight wins, four seconds and two thirds from his 27 trips to the post, giving him a Universal Driver Rating of .434. For his career, he has 65 wins, 42 second and 25 thirds from his 241 starts.

“I believe much of my success can be attributed to the many trainers and owners in the business who over the years have been trusting enough to allow me to drive their horses,” he said. “I can’t emphasize enough the importance that local trainers play in supporting amateur racing. That support allows the sport to thrive and attract new owners.”

Hernandez Part Of The Home Team

Chris Hernandez is one of the four pilots making up the local contingent in this weekend’s East-West Amateur Driving Challenge, joining Rick Bertrand, Dave Siegel and Robert Stepien as they take on the invaders from the other side of the country.

The west squad has prevailed in three of the first four renewals of this popular two-day, eight-race affair, including last year, and Hernandez is looking forward to once again be competing for these bragging rights.

“Racing against these guys is a lot of fun, but not easy,” Hernandez related. “They have a lot of different driving styles, so it’s different than competing against our California drivers. Over the years, you tend to pick up the style of the drivers you go up against night-in and night-out, but with these guys, you don’t know what type of moves they’re going to make out there.”

Hernandez also acknowledged that the well-regarded eastern team has raced all over the country, and in other countries for that matter, bringing quite a bit of experience with them to this Cal-Expo event. He also pointed out that amateur drivers keep their status by donating their money to charities that help causes all over the world.

Hernandez was asked about his favourite memory when it comes to these amateur competitions. “That would have to be 10 years ago when we went up against the drivers from Italy. That was very interesting.”

As far as this weekend’s squaring off with the drivers from the east, Hernandez is what you could call cautiously optimistic about his team’s chances. “We’re facing a very solid group. For the California drivers to win this, we have to be at our very best.”

There is a Super High 5 carryover of $2,614 going into Thursday night. The $1 minimum wager takes places on Race 10 each evening and challenges players to predict the first five finishers across the line. The estimated pool is $10,000.

A reminder that there will be two Wednesday night programs this month, April 21 and 28, with no racing on Thursdays April 22 and 29. There will be harness action Fridays and Saturdays throughout the month.

Live racing resumes at Cal-Expo on Thursday, April 8 at 5:50 p.m. (PDT) and continues through Saturday, April 10. The first post time on Friday, April 9 is 5:35 p.m. First-race post time on Saturday is scheduled for 5:50 p.m.

(Cal-Expo)