He had no time to catch his breath, but that didn't prevent Marlin Hanover from being the best
.
Winners Over pacers, racing for a $4,500 purse, were featured at Cal Expo on a windy Saturday night (March 10), on which Marlin Hanover equalled a lifetime mark.
In advance of starting from his assigned Post 4 in the field of five, driver Luke Plano knew he had an advantage.
"I thought my chances were as good as any," stated Plano. "Plus by finally drawing inside of Haggin Oaks [and driver James Kennedy], I thought I could leave underneath her and hopefully get a two-hole trip without using him too much."
Leaving and racing three-wide for the first eighth of a mile, Plano, by virtue of having company while forward off the gate, didn't clear to the lead until the 3/16ths mile pole into a :27.4 opening quarter. Did he use his charge?
"The two horses to my immediate inside, Amigo De Garcia [with Steve Wiseman] and One And Only [with Jim Lackey], both left and pushed pretty hard, a little harder than I anticipated. So going into the first turn, I figured I better stop lollygagging and get him in gear, and he responded when I asked him, but it was a kind of a testy lead. On the flip side, however, was that Haggin Oaks took back and I may have benefited from her possibly getting out of position."
With the field having paced 5/16ths of a mile, Kennedy moved Haggin Oaks to the outside in quest for the lead while Plano had a hold of his pacer. By the half-mile juncture, however, Plano concluded he knew what he had to do.
"We had a tailwind up the backstretch and I had my horse in pretty high gear passing the quarter, plus the wind was carrying him a bit, so I let him pace a little. By the time Haggin Oaks got to me, we were going pretty good and I took a hold initially to let her go, but then I thought it could be too much of an effort to have to grab in to my horse to let her go, so I decided to race her because I didn't think I would benefit from letting her go at that point -- even though initially I did."
Now slugging it out in a tooth and nail final turn dispute, Plano still had a good hold of his five-year-old through a :27.4 third quarter, while reaching the three-quarter mile station, timed in a speedy 1:24.
"We were going big fractions, but my horse still felt pretty game at the three-quarters and I thought if I could shake off Haggin Oaks, that I'd have a solid chance to beat the others."
Under urging into the lane while now racing into a good headwind, was Plano worried about Amigo De Garcia, who had gotten a perfect trip?
"When we straightened up into the lane, I could feel him on my helmet and I did have a concern as to how much pace he might have. But halfway down the lane when I was really after my horse, I felt that Amigo De Garcia didn't have as much pace as I thought. From there my horse fought gamely right to the wire."
Clearing holding firm, Marlin Hanover won ($6.20) by one and a quarter lengths. Owned by Richard Morita and David Yamada, the Liberio Pacheco-trained gelding stopped the timer at 1:53.4. Amigo De Garcia was no match while finishing in second, and One And Only finished one and a quarter lengths farther back in third.
"He has been racing well all along and tonight he was outstanding," finished the meet's leading driver, who recorded five victories on the 15-race program.
(Cal Expo)