Celebrity Status in Cal Expo spotlight

Celebrity Status (Vlos), fresh from a California Sire Stakes harness racing victory last week, heads the cast for Friday night’s pacing main event at Cal Expo.

The race is set as the fifth on an eight-race Watch and Wager LLC card that gets underway at 6:45 p.m.

Celebrity Status is a 4-year-old son of Vlos who is owned by Set The Pace Racing and is reined-and-trained by Nick Roland.

Taking him on are Lilbabyblue with Mooney Svendsen; Search And Destroy, Luke Plano; Justcallmehungry, James Kennedy; The Last Waltz for Rene Goulet; Semicolon, John MacDonald; Sylvester, Winter Asher-Stalbaum; Jackie Boy, Brett Erickson; Eagle Lands, Chip Lackey and Love To Flirt with Jessie Pacheco.

Schneider, Roland showing the way

With a five-bagger on last Saturday night’s program, Nick Roland has now taken a one-length lead over Luke Plano in the driver’s race.

Roland is also right in the thick of things in the trainer standings, as his 14 victories puts him two behind Quentin Schneider and two ahead of Rick Bertrand.

One of last Saturday’s victories for Roland came with his trainee Alilthundadownunda, who was able to work out a perfect pocket trip to account for the Open Pace in a snappy 1:54 4/5 tour.

Nick wasn’t so lucky earlier on the card with his trainee Over Ice, who suffered some early trouble before working to the lead and then tiring as the heavy favorite in the California Sire Stakes for the 4-year-old fillies.

It was Overthemoonforyou who was posing for pictures following that contest, making it six straight wins and seven from her eight starts at the meet for Qks Racing, trainer Schneider and pilot Aaron Lehman.

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A reminder that all 20-cent Pick 4s and Pick 5s at this meet come with a reduced 16 percent takeout rate. The early Pick 5 features a $20,000-guaranteed gross pool while the late Pick 4 has a $25,000 guarantee.

Free past performances for the early Pick 5 and late Pick 4 are available every racing night at handicapping.ustrotting.com, courtesy of the US Trotting Strategic Wagering Alliance.

For complete race entries, click here: US Trotting entries.

by Mark Ratzky, for Cal Expo Harness