The mare Dreaming Of Amy and the gelding Bobby Baccala have a pretty good rivalry going in the trotting ranks at Cal Expo, having met six straight times with three victories each going into this week’s action. They clash again in Friday night’s 11th race.
Dreaming Of Amy is a six-year-old Illinois-bred miss who is owned and trained by Matias Ruiz with Luke Plano being her regular partner in the sulky. She prefers to do her best work from off the pace, best illustrated last week when she rallied from fifth at the head of the stretch to win going away by a length and three-quarters.
It was the fifth snapshot in the last seven appearances for the Ruiz colour-bearer and in the process she evened the score with arch-rival Bobby Baccala, who weakened to fourth on this occasion after having pacesetting duties. He had won the previous match-up with roles reversed and Dreaming Of Amy showing the way to the stretch on that occasion.
“I had her last spring and she did pretty well,” Ruiz noted. “She started out at $2,500, then she won at $4,000 and again at $6,000. At that point she started racing in the Open because there weren’t any other spots for her. She never won at that level, but she was competitive.”
During the hiatus, Dreaming Of Amy shipped East and was unable to make much of an impact while out of the Ruiz barn. A return to California in November proved to be the right tonic, however, as she has picked up right where she left off at the end of the previous meet.
“She definitely likes the track and she got her form back pretty quickly,” Matias said. “She wants to come from the back and sometimes the race isn’t going to set up for that, but Luke knows her real well and does a great job.”
Bobby Baccala is gunning for a little revenge after faltering as the favourite last week. The George Reider trainee, who races for his conditioner and Dave and Rob Haness, could easily turn the tables with James Kennedy guiding.
A pair of $10,000 California Sire Stakes for the four-year-old trotting and pacing distaffers and a $6,000 Open Pace are the highlights on the Friday night Watch and Wager LLC program at Cal Expo.
(Cal Expo)