Sire stakes contenders to battle at Cal Expo

A $20,000 California Sire Stakes for the 4-year-old male harness racing pacers featuring Chase The Gold and Alilthundadownunda; a pair of $7,500 Sire Stakes for the 3-year-old pacing colts and 3-year-old pacing fillies and a $6,500 Distaff Open Pace headed by Rockin With Lou share the spotlight Sunday evening at Cal Expo.

Watch and Wager LLC will present an 11-race card that is set to get underway at 5 p.m.

Chase The Gold comes into weekend’s assignment riding a seven-race winning streak for owner Qks Racing and trainer Quentin Schneider and he will be piloted by James Kennedy.

Among his conquests at this meet are the Donald Arnstine and Steve Wiseman Finals, setting his 1:52 4/5 mark in the latter; and a decision in the first Sire Stakes clash of the season three weeks ago.

Alilthundadownunda will be looking for some revenge after being beaten only a half-length in the latter contest while making his first start since coming in from Minnesota for Set The Pace Racing LLC and driver/trainer Nick Roland.

Since that near-miss, he has captured a conditioned affair and should be much tighter for his second clash with Chase The Gold. Completing that field are Believe In Dragons, SD Watch Me Now, Im A Magic Man and Arnie’s Army.

The Sire Stakes for the 3-year-old pacing colts is headed by the unbeaten Worthy Opponent for owner/breeder Wayne and Rod Knittel, trainer Bob Johnson and driver Mooney Svendsen, while the contest for the sophomore pacing fillies finds the same connections represented by Toot Toot and pilot Chip Lackey in a non-betting event.

Sophomores get chance at Sire Stakes money

The first Sire Stakes events for the 3-year-old pacing colts and geldings and 3-year-old pacing fillies are set for Sunday evening, and owner/breeders Wayne and Rod Knittel and trainer Bob Johnson look to be holding a strong hand in both divisions.

Worthy Opponent is unbeaten in three impressive scores with Mooney Svendsen, while his filly counterpart Toot Toot has been no match versus her stablemate in two appearances and should be a handful while racing with distaffers for the first time.

Both are offspring of the late Hi Ho Silverheel’s, with Worthy Opponent out of the Dragon Again mare Mistup Magic and Toot Toot out of the Artsplace mare Aftermath.

Worthy Opponent has crushed his opposition by a combined 18 lengths, overcoming an early miscue two back and then lowering his mark to 1:58 flat in last week’s 10-length romp with Svendsen.

Johnson related, “Mooney said he doesn’t feel like he’s going that fast, which is always a good sign.”

Meanwhile, Toot Toot is getting away from Worthy Opponent after being the exacta-completer behind her barnmate in her only two trips to the post and it will be interesting to see how she performs against the girls with Chip Lackey back at the controls.

A reminder there are three wagers offered here each night with a reduced 16 percent takeout rate – the 20-cent early and late Pick 5 and the 20-cent Pick 4 – with the latter featuring a $30,000-guaranteed gross pool on Fridays and a $25,000 guarantee on Saturdays.

For pre-card race entries, click here.

For full race entries, click here.

by Mark Ratzky for Cal Expo Harness