Pips Jenny G hasn’t been around forever, it just seems that way.
When the 13-year-old mare got the job done last weekend by a nose, it was her 55th win from 350 starts and pushed her career earnings to $144,000.
Pips Jenny G currently goes about her business for owner Juan Pacheco and trainer Lester Smith, but for much of her career she raced under the banner of her breeder, Brevator ‘Doc’ Creech.
“Her dam was a Dignitarian mare named Pips Cindy Lu, who was well configured but crazy, in fact she was dangerous to take to the track,” Creech recalled. “We finally gave up on her and bred her to Balanced Attack, and to tell you the truth, it was because it was convenient and cheap.”
As it turned out, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree as far as Pips Jenny G was concerned. “We tried to break ‘Jenny’ on the jog cart on the farm, but she was too much like her mother,” Creech continued.
“I remember she even broke some of our equipment. I gave up on her and turned her over to Lester Smith, who I knew was very good with babies. Lester did a fine job and we ultimately got her to the track and the races.”
Fast forward a little over a decade and there is Pips Jenny G posing for pictures with pilot Luke Plano in the Cal Expo winner’s circle after being on the right end of a desperate photo finish.
“She’s always had a bit of an attitude from her dam, which is good as long as it’s directed at winning races,” Creech explained. “She turned out to be a good solid mare.”
Pips Jenny G is scheduled to make start No. 351 in Sunday’s 11th and final race.
Razzle Be Dazzled Gets Marquee Treatment
Razzled Be Dazzled, runner-up to High Bet Hanover in her last appearance, gets away from her rival and looms the one to beat in Sunday’s main event for Open III pacing fillies and mares.
An 11-race program is on tap with first post set for 4:40 p.m. The feature will go as the third contest on the card with a field of six set to face starter Kenny Fowler.
Razzled Be Dazzled is a four-year-old daughter of Voracious Hanover who is owned by John Rogers, is conditioned by Steve Wiseman and will have James Kennedy doing the honours. She is looking for her eighth win on the year from 21 trips to the post.
The bay miss established her lifetime mark of 1:54.1 when she won a leg of the Annette Funicello Series at Cal Expo on October 11. She has come back to record two thirds and a second, the most recent being the aforementioned exacta completion behind High Bet Hanover under these conditions.
Dont Hurry Love may prove the main rival for the combination of owner Ed Actkinson, trainer Bob Johnson and pilot Mooney Svendsen. The Dontgetinmyway mare has $136,000 in the bank and a 1:54.1 mark that was set last year over the Hoosier Park oval.
The Actkinson colourbearer registered her last score in her Hoosier Park finale on October 2, proving a punctual 6-5 favourite in that affair. After a needed outing at Cal Expo at the end of the month, she has recorded a second and a third and looms a solid threat while drawn inside Razzle Be Dazzled for this go-around.
Completing the cast are Surprisingly Sweet, who gives the Wiseman barn two looks at the outcome and will have her conditioner in the bike; Part Time Lady for Mike Jarvis; Kiss My Crouper with Ryan Grundy; and Free Girl with Luke Plano giving directions.
(Cal Expo)