Life Isa Shortwalk, a sharp 6-1 upsetter last week, figures to get a lot more respect at the windows in the $15,000 Bill Vallandingham Pace for fillies and mares on Sunday (Dec. 5) at Cal Expo.
The Vallandingham headlines a nine-race Watch and Wager LLC card that is set to get underway at 5:00 p.m.
Life Isa Shortwalk is an eight-year-old daughter of Keystone Rodeo who carries the banner of Set The Pace Racing LLC and is reined and trained by Nick Roland. She comes into this assignment just shy of the $200,000 earnings mark with a 1:52.4 standard that was set at Plainridge Racecourse.
Leaving from the No. 2 post last week, she was unhurried early and then came second-over down the backside. Roland made a sweeping move with his mare off the final turn to grab command and she went on to a two and a quarter-length decision while stopping the timer n 1:55.3.
Casa Mia put in a solid late bid to complete the exacta in that affair for owner Gretchen Smith, trainer Nathalie Tremblay and pilot James Kennedy and will be looking to turn the tables on Sunday.
The nine-year-old Driven To Win mare has clicked in six of her 30 trips to the post this season, with the most recent snapshot coming in mid-September over the Hawthorne course. Her 1:53.2 lifetime mark came three years ago over a sloppy track at the Meadowlands.
Taking them on in the Vallandingham are Wizzel Stix, Brooklyn Moonshine, Helens Girl, Machet Time and Shes A Live Wire.
Races honour memory of Arnstine, Vallandingham
This week’s feature races are named for Bill Vallandingham and Donald Arnstine, who both had a major impact on harness racing in California.
Bill Vallandingham passed away earlier this year at age 74 due to complications from a lung transplant performed in 2014, while Donald Arnstine passed away in September of last year at the age of 85.
“Billy V”, as Vallandingham was affectionately known, was the starter at Cal Expo for 20 years before health issues forced him to leave the job seven years ago, but he did return to limited duties in 2018.
He wore many hats around the racetrack, including groom, paddock judge, horse identifier and horse tattooer before assuming his stint as the starter in 1994. Bill Vallandingham was a veteran of the Army who served in Vietnam.
Donald Arnstine was a longtime owner and industry activist who, along with his wife Barbara, campaigned harness horses in California for five decades. They claimed their first horse, Big Time, in 1973 with the Desomer Stable and over the years they had many stars with that barn, including Quaker Byrd.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Arnstine was active in the Western Standardbred Association, now known as the California Harness Horsemen’s Association.
He served as president of the organization in 1978, overseeing the legislation that created the state’s sire stakes program and he also helped negotiate horsemen’s agreements with Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park, Bay Meadows and Cal Expo.
While Donald Arnstine had a full and successful life in academia, including a long and accomplished university teaching career and author, his passion was always his wife of 56 years, his children, his grandchildren and harness racing.
(Cal Expo)