His owner didn't take a plane, he didn't take a train, he took a car, and after 510 miles, Stanza made it worthwhile for his owner
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An even mixture of six conditioned and claiming pacers, racing for a purse of $3,400, were featured at Cal Expo on Friday night (September 2), in which Stanza didn't have to fight lady-luck. In advance of starting from post-position one, trainer Steve Wiseman knew things could only be better than the previous week.
"I had bad luck last week when I had road trouble in the stretch that caused me to break in a race where I thought I could be second or third," stated Wiseman. "With the class drop tonight I thought I had a decent shot."
Leaving until yielding an eighth of a mile past the start, Wiseman moved his charge back outside at the 3/16ths mile pole at the same time Western So (Scott Cisco) was on the move into a :29 opening "stanza."
Clearing to the lead well past the quarter-pole, Wiseman yielded the top past the three-eighths mile marker in what "appeared" to be a reasonable second-quarter -- but the timer said otherwise when the half came up in :56.4.
"I wasn't trying to push him -- I was sitting. It didn't feel like we were going :26.4 in the second-quarter -- so I had no reason to think Western So had been used."
Racing in the pocket and anxious in the third-quarter, Wiseman chose to sit with his gelding past the midway point of the final turn when Myras Hiho (Rich Wojcio) came on.
"I figured I'd be able to slide out on the back of Myras Hiho because I felt it was just Western So, Myras Hiho and me -- especially since the other three horses in the race hadn't raced last week and figured to need a start."
With the field now past the three-quarter mile station and with Cisco urging his pacer on while Myras Hiho looked to take over the lead, was Wiseman concerned?
“No, because I could see I was going to be able to squeeze out," he said.
Free and three-wide at the seven-eighths mile pole, Wiseman had good reason to be happy.
"The horse felt strong and I thought I had a good chance of winning from there," he said.
Closing into the lead with a sixteenth of a mile to go while only hand driven, Wiseman applied the finishing touches.
"I never asked him or touched him until late and he was strong -- then I gave him one wheel-disc urge in deep-stretch and he responded well to it."
Taking off when asked, the five-year-old drew off to win ($5.80) by three and theee-quarter lengths. Myras Hiho was a good second, and Western So finished another three lengths farther back in third.
"He raced like I thought he would last week, which was very good. It was also a nice win for his owner, Mark Benvenga, because he drove all the way from Del Mar this morning see him race and win," finished Wiseman, who had five piloting victories on the card and now has nine wins over the last two Friday programs.
Also on the card, trainer Bob Johnson had a training grand-slam, giving him 10 wins over the last two Friday cards.
(Cal Expo)