Nick Roland is a new face on the scene at Cal Expo, and you can look for him to be a frequent visitor to the winner’s circle as evidenced by his three victories on opening night.
Including among those scores was a win by Firedrake in the featured Open Pace from the demanding Post 10.
Roland shows up with several driving and training titles to his credit at Running Aces, where he has plied his trade since the Minnesota track debuted 10 years ago.
“My grandparents on both sides have been involved in harness racing going back to the 1950s, and my parents actually met at the racetrack,” said the 35-year-old native of Iowa City, Iowa.
Despite the fact his parents, Royal and Lisa, are also involved in the sport, they insisted that Nick get his college degree, and he found himself working in the insurance business following his graduation.
“I was miserable and after one year I had to come back to the racetrack,” he explained. “It was at that point that my sister Tessa and I showed up at that first Running Aces meet with a few horses that we or our family owned.”
It’s been a slow building process for Roland, but he eventually got to the position where he had owners knocking on his door and the ability to expand the stable to the point where he has led the meeting as both a driver and a trainer.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have some great owners over the years and they give me the freedom to do what I want.”
While Nick normally has raced at Prairie Meadows and the Iowa fairs following the end of the Running Aces meet, this year the decision was made to come out and give Cal Expo a try.
“We’ve got 20 horses and that’s just about the right number,” Roland explained. “I couldn’t do it with my girlfriend Jessica Johnson and my right hand man Terry Kauffman, and so far so good.”
In addition to piloting his own performers, Nick is looking forward to competing in as many races as possible as a catch driver. That should result in a lot of pictures.
Pair Of Opens Get The Marquee Treatment
An Open Pace headed by Firedrake and a Distaff Open that provides a rematch between Capitol Hill and Lil Miss Knuckles are the main attractions on Saturday night’s Watch and Wager LLC program at Cal Expo.
There will be 10 races decided. First post will be at 6:10 p.m.
Firedrake has been assigned the outside slot among the six pacers set for Race 5 as he seeks a repeat score for owner Set The Pace Racing LLC and driver-trainer Nick Roland.
A four-year-old son of Dragon Again from the Artsplace mare Everythings Easy, Firedrake proved a punctual 4-5 favourite in his Cal Expo debut on opening night. From the difficult Post 10, he was hard used to the early lead before being covered up, then re-rallied in the drive to prevail by a neck over Ragins Flight in a 1:53.3 mile.
Set to line up inside him on Saturday are the Kathie Plested-trained pair of Jazzmanian Devil and Ragins Flight; Almost Cut My Hair from the Bob Johnson barn; and the Richard Remillard reined-and-trained Baylor Out.
Lil Miss Knuckles and Capitol Hill get another chance to settle the score in the Filly and Mare Open after having finished ‘one-two’ in last week’s clash at the head of the class in this division.
Lil Miss Knuckles posted a 12-1 surprise in that affair for owner Fabiola Quevedo, trainer Edwin Quevedo and pilot William Hernandez, getting the job done by three-quarters of a length over Capitol Hill.
The latter is a Badlands Hanover mare who goes about her business for George McCrystal and trainer Kathie Plested and lost a tough one last week after pacing a first-over journey. Steve Wiseman guides. Capitol Hill will depart from the outside post in the field of seven with Lil Miss Knuckles just to her inside. Blue Note, Coastal Treasure, La Madawna De Rosa, Moonshinenmonkeys and Smash round out the field.
(Cal Expo)