Skoochs Valentine headlines the next $20,000 USD leg of the California Sire Stakes for three-year-old pacing fillies on Friday, April 25 at Cal Expo.
First post for the 10-race Watch and Wager LLC program is 6:45 p.m. (PDT), with the Sire Stakes scheduled as the second race.
Skoochs Valentine captured the most recent big-money event for this group on April 5, as she dug in gamely after taking command turning for home to prevail by a nose over DM Magic Player that night in 2:00.3.
Skoochs Valentine is a homebred daughter of Karpathian Kid out of I You Say So for Ronald Rettig-Zucchi of Oakland, California. The filly is reined and trained by Jessie Pacheco.
Skoochs Valentine is the 6-5 morning line favourite and will start from post one. She sports top three finishes in the other two Sire Stakes legs won by DM Magic Player, who will start from post four, and Mare A Raeann, who drew post two. Miss Street Dancer completes the field in post three as she looks for a maiden-breaking score.
The $12,500 USD Lloyd Arnold Free-For-All Pace shares the spotlight on the Friday card and brings out the likes of Alilthundadownunda, Its Pointless and Capt Jack Hanover.
Alilthundadownunda and Its Pointless, second and third in a blanket finish behind longshot Capt Jack Hanover in last week’s Open Pace, get another chance to settle the score in the Arnold.
Its Pointless comes into this contest having won five of his nine starts this season, but has had to settle for minor awards in the last three outings while turning in solid efforts on each occasion. The eight-year-old homebred son of Kents On Nuke out of Bianca carries the banner of Mark Anderson, hails from the Gordie Graham barn and will be handled by James Kennedy.
Alilthundadownunda is also having a strong year for Set The Pacing Racing and driver/trainer Nick Roland, with his biggest score coming in the March 22 Arnstine Pace where the seven-year-old homebred Malak Uswaad N-Wild About Eagle gelding hung a length decision on Its Pointless.
Capt Jack Hanover upset both of those pacers in last week’s Open, going coast-to-coast for driver/trainer John MacDonald with perfect rating as a 17-1 shot. The seven-year-old Captaintreacherous-Current Hanover gelding earned his 30th career win in a season's best 1:53 clocking for MacDonald and co-owners Michael and Speed To Burn Racing Stable.
MacDonald loaded for bear
John MacDonald comes into the final two weeks of the meet with several ultra-sharp performers in the shedrow.
Among MacDonald’s driving and training wins last week were the aforementioned Open Pace upsetter Capt Jack Hanover, Open Trot victor Valottalove and the streaking Tommy Shelby.
Valottalove has established himself as the king of the trotters with three straight impressive victories, including the Gary Budahn last month and a sizzling eight-length score in last weekend’s Open Trot with a 1:54.1 final clocking. That makes the son of Love You-Valotta the favourite for the Stan Bergstein Trot, which will be decided on closing night, Friday, May 2.
Meanwhile, Tommy Shelby is proving to be one of the best Cal Expo claims in recent memory with a five-race win streak in tow that has seen him go coast-to-coast in back-to-back 1:52.4 tours of the Sacramento oval.
(With files from Cal Expo)