K D Amazin Spirit lived up to his name last weekend, overcoming some interference at the head of the stretch to reel in the heavily favoured Franky Provolone with new best friend Scott Cisco giving directions.

The seven-year-old son of Thadrow is going strong as ever these days, and you can say the same thing about his 78-year-old owner/trainer/breeder Keith Willey, who is thrilled with the way his trotter is flying home on a regular basis. Willey had also been his regular pilot up until this meet where Cisco has assumed those duties.

“Scott has done a great job with 'Spirit' and he absolutely loves the horse,” Willey related. “I actually prefer to drive, but I have all those memories from last winter of the cold and the mud and asking myself, ‘What am I doing out here?’ This way has worked out real well.”

K D Amazin Spirit was sitting a second-over trip to the drive in last week’s outing and looked poised to pounce when Claudius Augustus made a break directly in front of him and briefly impeded the Willey colourbearer. Shaking it off like a pro, he went about his business and posted a length and a quarter score.

“I have to think most other trotters would have gone off stride at that point, but he gathered himself and got the leader,” Willey noted. “I think he may have impressed me the most a few weeks ago in a race he didn’t win. He was fanned extremely wide to the stretch and came a :27 and change final quarter and just missed that night.”

This hard-knocking trotter is one of many performers to carry the 'K D' initials for Willey over the last two and a half decades.

“We had so many of the names we were putting it get turned down, my wife Debbie and I decided to start using our initials in front of the names to get them through,” Willey explained.

Mission accomplished and carried proudly by this trotter.

Franky Provolone, who rattled off three straight wins earlier in the meet but has had to settle for the runner-up prize in his last three appearances, and K D Amazin Spirit, who flew home to deny him last weekend, get a rematch in Friday’s $5,000 trotting headliner.

A 15-race card is on tap at the Watch and Wager LLC meeting at Cal Expo with first post set for 5:45 p.m. The feature will go as the second event on the evening with Franky Provolone and K D Amazin Spirit drawn right next to each other in the inside posts.

Rounding out the cast are K D Nicol, who gives the Willey barn two looks at the outcome; the Tim Brown-trained High Tech Tony; Lost In The Fog for Bruce Clarke; and Giles L S Hanover, who leaves from the outside with Mooney Svendsen at the helm.

The action will continue this week with a Saturday night program featuring the second leg of the Joe O’Brien Pacing series.

(With files from Cal Expo)