The 46-night Winter/Spring harness meet at Cal Expo gets underway on Friday night (Nov. 18) with an 11-race card under the Watch and Wager LLC banner featuring the $12,500 Rod Knittel Memorial Free-For-All Pace.

Post time is set for 6:45 p.m.

The season begins this week with a Friday program only while next week will mark the start of racing on a Friday/Sunday basis through April 20. The exceptions will be a Monday, Dec. 26 program and a Saturday, Feb. 11 card.

The schedule includes 20 California Sire Stakes contests, including a pair of $50,000 events for the four-year-old trotters and pacers in April, and a total of eight late-closers headed by the Alan Horowitz Pace next month.

There will also be such top events as the Alan Kirschenbaum, Kirk Breed, Lloyd Arnold and Don Fowler for the pacers and the Gary Budahn and Stan Bergstein for the trotters.

A Major Omen and Dancin Lance, who have both recorded many strong miles at Cal Expo, head the cast for Friday night’s Knittel Memorial Pace, which will go as the sixth race.

A Major Omen is a six-year-old son of Art Major who is owned, trained and driven by Gerry Longo. He comes into this assignment with 30 wins from his 107 starts, $332,287 in his bank account and a lifetime mark of 1:49.2 that was set at the Meadowlands two years ago.

Dancin Lance returns from a Hoosier Park invasion for owner Juan Pacheco and trainer Leon Smith, and will have Luke Plano at the controls. The son of Always A Virgin draws just inside his main rival in the No. 2 post for Friday night’s clash.

Completing the field are Mystic Dragon (Daryl Thiessen), Albergo Hanover (Chip Lackey), California Rock (Emilio Cisneros) and Roll To The Beach (Mel Mullet).

Also on Friday, a $7,000 contest for the Open filly and mare pacers is headed by Rockin With Lou, who has been assigned the outside post in the field of five for owner/driver/trainer Gerry Longo. The mare has gone several big miles over this layout in past seasons. 

Taking her on from the rail out are the Luke Plano-reined and trained Brooklyn Moonshine, the Bob Johnson-conditioned Sweet Young Thing (Lemoyne Svendsen), Delightfully Wild (Mel Mullet) from the Lino Pacheco shedrow and the Chip Lackey trained and driven Nebble Hanover.

Plano returns with eyes on the prize

Winning driving titles at Cal Expo is nothing new for Luke Plano, who is one of the favourites to find himself atop the standings when all is said and done in the spring.

This year, however, Plano has put a bit more emphasis on the training end as he will have 20 trotters and pacers ready for action at the Sacramento oval.

“It’s the most I’ve ever had at one time and I’m looking forward to racing them,” Plano related as opening-night entries were being taken. “That said, I still love driving and want to be out there for every race, so hopefully I’ll get a lot of catch drives when I don’t have one in the race.”

Among Plano’s trainees are the top pacer Bombay Hanover and a three-year-old trotter named Walla For You, who will be making her California debut.

“Bombay Hanover was racing at the top level here last meet and has been going against the best in Minnesota this summer,” said Plano. “Walla For You has been racing in Indiana and I think she’s going to fit well out here.”

While he doesn’t have any Sire Stakes performers in the barn, he could make his presence felt as a pilot when those events roll around.

“I drove a couple of real nice ones in Minnesota this summer that are eligible for those races and they should be tough.”

(With files from Cal Expo)