Cenalta Call Girl, who already captured the Annette Funicello Final during the current Cal Expo meet, will look to add the $9,800 Robert Staats Final to her resume on Saturday night.
Eight pacing fillies and mares will do battle in the main event, which has been carded as the sixth dash on the 12-race program under the Watch and Wager LLC banner. First post will be at 6:10 p.m.
There will be mandatory payouts on all wagers Saturday.
Cenalta Call Girl is a three-year-old daughter of Allamerican Merlin, who is owned by Rene Goulet and Helen and Myra Empey and is reined and trained by Goulet. She will head into her Saturday night assignment having posed for pictures following four of her nine lifetime trips to the post and three of her four local appearances.
On November 17, the bay miss proved a punctual 3-5 favourite in the Funicello Final as she raced first-over to get the job done with Goulet. In last week’s Staats Prep, Cenalta Call Girl exploded with a :26.4 final quarter to win going away by a length and a quarter in what was another impressive mile.
Yeswellnomaybe was her most immediate victim in that affair and will loom large once again for owner Fabiola Quevedo, trainer Edwin Quevedo and pilot Ryan Grundy. She has recorded four runner-up finishes from her six appearances during the current meet.
Completing the field are Free Radical, Alwaysalittlemore, Rockin Repeat, Cenalta Cougar, Wizzel Stix and Be My Lucky Lady.
Race Pays Tribute To Robert Staats
Saturday night’s feature race is named for Robert Staats, the prominent owner/breeder who passed away in 2011 at the age of 69 at his home in Reno, Nevada.
Along with his wife, Loretta, Robert Staats was active in the sport beginning in the early 1970s, with Bob Gordon handling the training duties for most of those years. Upon Gordon’s passing, Rick Plano and Bob Johnson conditioned the Staats performers.
Among those outstanding colour-bearers have been Stand By, the brilliant New Zealand-bred race-mare and producer; her son, Moxie, a 1:49.3 performer with more than $400,000 in earnings; Nemisis, a sparkling 1:48 winner; the popular mare Reno Rose; Bells To Be Rung; and the stakes-winning BGs Prodigy, who was named after Bob Gordon.
Stand By was the horse who put the Staats stable on the map and she was his all-time favourite. The Down Under import had a 1:52 career standard and banked $255,000 in a brilliant career on the racetrack, then went on to be an equally outstanding broodmare.
She was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2010. Stand By produced nine foals and they have earned more than $1 million, with her son Moxie retired to stud at the Desomer Farm and becoming a top sire in his own right.
“Bob Staats was first and foremost a kind and classy gentleman,” said Cal Expo General Manager Chris Schick. “Bob raced top quality New Zealand imports and California Sire Stakes competitors for nearly 40 years. We are proud to honour his memory here at Cal Expo.”
There will be no live racing at Cal Expo next week, as the trotters and pacers will be back in action on December 26 with a special Tuesday evening card that will begin at 5 p.m. There will also be racing that week on Friday and Saturday, December 29 and 30.
(Cal Expo)