Racing expands to three nights a week at Cal Expo with the trotters and pacers now competing under the ‘Watch and Wager LLC’ banner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.
A $5,500 Open Pace heads the Friday action.
St Lads Lotto, who has rattled off five straight victories while steadily working his way up the class ladder at Cal Expo, looks to keep the momentum going in the Open Pace. A 12-race card is set with a first post of 6:10 p.m. The Open Pace has been carded as the third race on the program.
A four-year-old Ontario-sired son of Stonebridge Regal, St Lads Lotto races for Ferne and Jack Frydman with Mark Winacott the conditioner and Steve Wiseman at the controls. He will start from the assigned outside post in the field of six.
The dark-hued performer began his winning streak while racing in a conditioned event on November 9 and has been unbeatable since that night. While he raced up close and personal in one of those tallies, he has used a powerful late kick to get the job done in the other decisions, the last four having coming with Wiseman in the sulky.
St Lads Lotto established a new career standard when he won the November 6 Open by an impressive four lengths and stopped the timer in 1:52.3. Sent off the 4-5 chalk in his most recent outing, he came from far back to be up by a half-length, coming his final quarter in :26.3 and stopping the clock in 1:52.4 that evening.
China King was his most immediate victim in that affair while going off at 22-1 and will be making his third start since coming in from Pocono Downs, where he was a 1:51.2 victor last month. Gene Vallandingham conditions the son of American Ideal for Gary and Jennifer Sabot and Chip Lackey will again do the driving.
Completing the field from the rail out are J C Onthebeach with Dave Siegel; Mar Dream, Mooney Svendsen; Cenalta Power for Ryan Grundy; and A Real Miracle, who will have Luke Plano giving directions.
Brewski Is Doing Her Mother Proud
After capturing the first sire stakes event of the meeting for the sophomore pacing fillies two weeks ago, Brewski came right back and proved a punctual odds-on favourite in a conditioned affair last weekend for owner/breeders Billie Schwartz and Junior Wilkinson and pilot Luke Plano.
Wilkinson conditions the daughter of Little Steven and she is out of the Tulane mare Wooski, who was also a stakes winner for the Schwartz/Wilkinson combination and is enjoying some pretty good success with her first to the races.
“This is the second generation for Billie and I,” Wilkinson noted. “We bred Wooski and now we have Brewski. We’ve also got a two-year-old out of her named Couldbe Dancing who is getting ready to qualify.
“Wooski was a real talented mare,” Junior related. “Unfortunately, she kicked a wall when she was three and missed a lot of stakes opportunities. She did come back and race at four with a 1:54 mark, but she really wasn’t the same.”
As for Brewski, she only raced once last year and has posed for pictures following five of her 20 trips to the post this season. She lived up to her heavy back in that December 7 sire stakes assignment, then came right back with a solid decision at most recent asking while lowering her career standard to 1:57.1 in the process.
“She’s getting better with each start,” her mentor said. “There are three more stakes races for her early next year and then we’ll go from there.”
In the meantime, Brewski will suit up in Friday’s first race as she continues to stay on her toes for the next stakes assignment the chance to add even more trophies to her mantle.
(Cal Expo)