Pridecrest and Jack Rabbit Slims, who have dominated at the head of the class of late, get the top billing in the $17,123 Stan Bergstein Free-For-All Trot on Sunday, April 28 at Cal Expo.
There will be 11 races presented by Watch and Wager LLC with first post set for 5:05 p.m.
A reminder the meet will come to a close next Friday, May 3, with a pair of $50,000 (USD) championship events for the four-year-old pacers heading the bill.
Pridecrest is coming off back-to-back, front-end Open scores for owner Chris Schick, trainer Kathie Plested and pilot Mooney Svendsen. He comes into this assignment with 63 wins from his 245 starts, $570,366 in his bank account and a 1:53.2 mark that was established over this track seven years ago.
Jack Rabbit Slims accounted for the Gary Budahn in March and followed with an Open score, but has had to settle for the exacta completion in his last two appearances. Like Pridecrest, he races for Chris Schick, with Luke Plano doing the driving and training. He is eying his 12th win from 41 starts with a 1:54 mark that was set two years ago at Hoosier Park. In those last two tries, Jack Rabbit Slims has found himself with too much work to do while Pridecrest was having things his own way.
Taking on this pair are TSS Hot House, Mandeville, Omaha Storm Chaser, Serene Hall, Silverhill Volo, Help Page, Snap Krackle Ntrot and Louis.
Alien Art Form paces out of this world
Alien Art Form saved his best for last, at least as far as the California Sire Stakes are concerned, capturing the final big-money event for the three-year-old male pacers last weekend.
The son of Outrageous Art, who is owned, trained and driven by Ryan Grundy, did the perfect track-and-attack in that contest to prevail by three-quarters of a length in 1:56.1 over favoured Fiery Combination while rewarding his backers at 10-1.
It was just the fourth start for Alien Art Form and he has improved with each trip to the post.
“He wasn’t quite ready as a two-year-old, so I decided to wait until this year,” Grundy noted. “He’s trained well right along, and after his first start here last month, I could start to see some real talent.”
Alien Art Form was fourth in the first Sire Stakes attempt, then made a nice move forward in last week’s trophy earner.
“The plan all along was to follow Gerry Longo’s horse [Fiery Conclusion] and it couldn’t have worked out any better. When I asked him, he had a real nice finish.”
Grundy explained that his sophomore pacer will next have some stakes races up in Alberta, with a return to Sacramento when the next meet gets underway in November.
(Cal Expo)