Razor sharp Ain’t She Special goes again

Ain’t She Special (American Ideal), going in razor sharp form at the moment, eyes her third straight harness racing snapshot in Friday night’s featured $7,000 Filly and Mare Open Pace at Cal Expo Harness.

There will be 10 races decided Friday under the Watch and Wager LLC banner with first post set for 6:45 p.m.

A 5-year-old mare, Ain’t She Special is owned by Dave Haness and Luke Plano with Plano doing the driving and training.

The bay miss is coming off back-to-back scores while making every pole a winning one on both occasions, the most recent from the outside slot.

Crazy Cute was Ain’t She Special’s most immediate victim in last week’s clash and will be looking for some revenge for owners Arnstine, Chambers and Plested, trainer Kathie Plested and regular pilot Mooney Svendsen.

Set to take her on are Velocity McSweets with James Kennedy; Starzznstripes, to be handled by Sean Smithpeters;Give Me This Dance, Jake Cutting and Graceful Horizon, who leaves from the outside slot with Nick Roland at the controls.

Looking ahead to Sunday’s card, a pair of $20,000 California Sire Stakes for the 4-year-old pacers will command the spotlight.

The first round of Sire Stakes action for this group saw Cenalta Token posing for pictures following the contest for the mares while it was Polar Storm who got the job done in the event for the males.Both will be back in action on Sunday in hopes of picking up another trophy.

Mile by Urkillnmesmalls has Ehrlich amazed

When the horses hit the wire and announcer Scott Ehrlich comes with “Are you kidding me!”, you know we just witnessed something unusual.

That was the case last week when Urkillnmemalls, leaving from the outside post in a field of eight, was parked the mile for driver/trainer Jesse Pacheco and just kept on keeping on to prevail by three-quarters of a length to the tune of a $75 payoff.

“I went into the race figuring him the longest shot on the board, especially since Nick Roland chose off of him and the fact that he drew the outside post,” Ehrich related.

“Then he parks the mile fighting throughout, which added to my mindset that he would have to tire. So, despite the fact that he had the lead with an eighth to go, I unintentionally overlooked him.

“All the while I was scanning the other horses across the track, trying to find the one with the most pace.

“When I saw Urkillmesmalls prevailing in deep stretch, I simply exclaimed what I couldn’t believe – ‘Are you kidding me!’”

For the record, Scott has returned to the booth here at Cal Expo this season after having called from September of 2005 until January of 2013, and he also has announced at Cumberland in Maine since April of 2021 and will return there in May.

by Mark Ratzky, for Call Expo Harness