Cenalta Token, a winner in the first two California Sire Stakes legs for the four-year-old pacing mares at the Cal Expo meet, and Made Of Misschief, winner in the most recent leg, get another chance to settle the score in Friday night’s featured $20,000 USD California Sire Stakes.
Watch and Wager LLC will present 10 races with things getting underway at 6:45 p.m. The co-features on the evening are an Open Pace headed by A Major Omen and an Open Trot featuring Jack Rabbit Slims.
Cenalta Token has gone strong miles in all three of the stakes for these distaffers, capturing the first two as the favourite and then turning in a game first-over effort in the most recent while finishing third. The homebred daughter of Mystery Chase carries the banner of Alberta's Gordon, Helen and Myrna Empey, is conditioned by Rene Goulet and will have Jake Cutting in the sulky. She will leave from post six in the seven-horse field.
Made Of Misschief was an impressive winner of that last stakes clash, finishing powerfully for the length decision in career-best 1:55.4 for Iowa owner/breeder Lanae Hernandez, trainer Bob Johnson and driver Luke Plano. The daughter of Vlos comes into this assignment razor sharp, having added two conditioned starts to her resume since that March 24 stakes tally. She will lstart from post three.
Completing the field are Cenalta Memories (Post 1), Gotyubytheshorthairs (Post 2), Wild Blue Wonder (Post 4), Stevies Girl (Post 5) and Hot N Fancy (Post 7).
Looking ahead to Sunday, the Kirk Breed Pace and the California Sire Stakes for four-year-old males will be decided.
Handsome Harvey gives Plano another snapshot
The driver's race at Cal Expo was over long ago, with Jake Cutting holding a daylight lead, while Luke Plano has a bit of breathing room atop the training stands with a 40-33 advantage over Nick Roland.
One of Plano’s driving and training wins last week came with Handsome Harvey in the $16,892 Don & Kenny Fowler Memorial Free For All, as the hard-hitting pacer ended up on the right end of the photo with classy Allmyxsliventexas after a 1:53.1 tour.
The victory was No. 20 from just 54 starts for the five-year-old son of Special Forces who is owned by Plano and Dave Haness and has proven to be an excellent purchase.
“When we bought Handsome Harvey [back in 2022], he was racing at the fairs in Iowa and was eligible for non-winners of one,” noted Plano. “We like to buy horses with conditions, develop them and gradually work them up the ranks.”
That plan has worked out perfectly with Handsome Harvey, who did the track and attack to perfection to get the job done in the Fowler while nailing an ultra-tough customer in Allmyxsliventexas.
(With files from Cal Expo)