$50,000 finals head Cal Expo closing night

A pair of $50,000 California Sire Stakes Final Championship events for the 4-year-old harness racing pacers will highlight Friday’s (May 3) closing-night program at Cal Expo Harness.

Watch and Wager LLC will present 13 races with first post set for 6 p.m. and there will be mandatory payouts in all wagers.

Looking at the Championship contest for the 4-year-old distaffers, Gotubytheshorthairs (Wind Me Up) and Made Of Mischief finished one-two in the most recent stakes with only a nose separating them. Gotubytheshorthairs was on the right end of that photo for owner/breeder Mark Anderson, trainer Gordie Graham and pilot James Kennedy.

A multiple stakes victress last year in Minnesota while winning 9 of her 15 starts, the bay miss finished a solid second off a long layoff in the March 24 Sire Stakes and then came back three weeks ago to edge out Made Of Mischief for her first local trophy.

The mare is out of the Mach Three mare Bearded Lady and looms large no matter how things shake out early.

Made Of Mischief (Vlos) accounted for the March 24 Sire Stakes clash and then lost a heartbreaker to Gotubytheshorthairs in that last April 12 big-money match-up.

The dark-hued mare is owned and was bred by Lanae Hernandez, takes her lessons from Bob Johnson and will once again have the services of Luke Plano.

Completing the field are Hot N Fancy, who will have Vod Farias guiding; Wild Blue Wonder with Nick Roland; Stevies Girl, who has the services of Mooney Svendsen and Cenalta Token, who leaves from the outside slot with Jake Cutting.

Polar Storm (Wind Me Up) and Bin A Mystery (Mystery Chase) put on quite a show in the most recent Sire Stakes for the 4-year-old males and get a rematch in the other $50,000 event.

Polar Storm is a homebred who competes for Alan and Cheryl Sandbulte with Nick Roland driving and training.

He did the perfect track-and-attack to prevail by a head over Bin A Mystery in that last gathering for this group and it was the 17th win from 57 career trips to the post and put him at the $147,000 mark in earnings with a 1:53 mark that was set here in February.

Bin A Mystery was a bit unlucky when shuffled in that last stakes match-up and came up a neck short for owner Mark Anderson and driver/trainer James Kennedy.

He was very strong winning the previous two Sire Stakes and will be looking for revenge. Taking them on are Lilbabyblue with Brett Erickson and Dougsmonkeybusiness with Jake Cutting doing the honors.

by Mark Ratzky, for Cal Expo Harness