California Sire Stakes action at Cal Expo

Cenalta Token (Mystery Chase), winner of the first two big-money dances for the 4-year-old pacing mares at the harness racing meet; and Made Of Misschief (Vlos), who was posing following the most recent, get another chance to settle the score in Friday night’s featured $20,000 California Sire Stakes at Cal Expo Harness.

Watch and Wager LLC will present 10 races with things getting underway at 6:45 p.m.

The co-features on the evening are an Open Pace headed by A Major Omen and an Open Trot featuring Jack Rabbit Slims.

Cenalta Token has gone strong miles in all three of the stakes for these distaffers, capturing the first two as the favorite and then turning in a game first-over effort in the most recent while finishing third.

The homebred carries the banner of Gordon, Helen and Myrna Empey, is conditioned by Rene Goulet and will have Jake Cutting in the sulky.

Made Of Misschief was an impressive winner of that last stakes clash, finishing powerfully for the length decision for owner/breeder Lanae Hernandez, trainer Bob Johnson and pilot Luke Plano.

Made Of Mischief comes into this assignment razor sharp, having added two conditioned scores to her resume since that March 24 stakes tally.

Completing the field are Cenalta Memories, Gotyubytheshorthairs, Wild Blue Wonder, Stevies Girl and Hot N Fancy.

Looking ahead to Sunday, the Kirk Breed Pace and the 4-year-old male Sire Stakes will be decided.

Handsome Harvey gives Plano another snapshot

The driver’s race here at Cal Expo was over long ago, with Jake Cutting holding a daylight lead, while Luke Plano has a bit of breathing room atop the training stands with a 40-33 advantage over Nick Roland.

One of Plano’s driving and training wins last week came with Handsome Harvey in the Doan nd Kenny Fowler Memorial, as the hard-hitting pacer ended up on the right end of the photo with classy Allmyx’sliventexas after a 1:53 1/5 tour.

The victory was No. 29 from just 54 starts for the 5-year-old son of Special Forces who is owned by Plano and Dave Haness and has proven to be an excellent purchase.

“When we bought Handsome Harvey he was racing at the fairs in Iowa and was eligible for non-winners of one,” Luke noted.

“We like to buy horses with conditions, develop them and gradually work them up the ranks.”

That plan has worked out perfectly with Handsome Harvey, who did the track and attack to perfection to get the job done in the Fowler while nailing an ultra-tough customer in Allmyx’sliventexas.

by Mark Ratzky, for Cal Expo Harness