Fresh from victories in the Alan Kirschenbaum and Rod Knittel, former O'Brien Award finalist Divine Art eyes her fourth straight snapshot in the $7,500 USD Filly and Mare Open Pace on Saturday, April 12 at Cal Expo.
Ten races are on the Watch and Wager LLC menu with a 6:42 p.m. (PDT) starting time.
Divine Art is a six-year-old daughter of Outrageous Art who is owned, trained and driven by Gerry Longo. She starts from post six on Saturday.
Winning streaks are nothing new for this mare, who rattled off 17 straight victories two years ago, with a number of those scores coming over this layout.
In last week’s Kirschenbaum, Divine Art was dispatched as the 3-5 favourite, sat a stalking trip early and was first over to put away pace-setting Graceful Horizon by a length in a sparkling 1:52 mile.
Graceful Horizon (PP5) has won half of her 10 starts on the season but has had to settle for two seconds and a third behind Divine Art in her last three trips to the post. The Vertical Horizon mare carries the banner of Set The Pace Racing LLC with Nick Roland reining and training.
Taking on this dynamic duo are (from the rail out) Senga Nightmare, Kitty Wampus, Nebble Hanover and Crazy Cute.
The Minnesota Kid earns another trophy
The Minnesota Kid continued his dominance among the three-year-old pacing colts last week with his third straight victory in California Sire Stakes action.
The son of Karpathian Kid is owned by Stephanie Longo, hails from the Jose Castillo barn and has been handled in each of those stakes victories by Luke Plano.
“He’s a very nice colt,” Plano related after the most recent decision. “He’s ultra handy and I can do whatever I want with him.”
The Minnesota Kid has put his versatility on display in those Sire Stakes victories, winning the first in coast-to-coast fashion, the second from well back and making a backstretch brush enroute to his romping tally at most recent asking.
“He was a really nice two-year-old but got hurt and missed some time,” Plano said. “Jose has done a great job getting him to come back in top form.”
The Minnesota Kid will get one more chance to pick up a trophy at this meet when the final stakes dance for this group comes up in two weeks.
(with files from Cal Expo)