California Sire Stakes headlines Cal Expo card

A $20,000 California Sire Stakes headed by The Minnesota Kid (Karpathian Kid) and the $12,500 Rod Knittel DHA Pace for fillies and mares share the harness racing spotlight Saturday night at Cal Expo.

Watch and Wager LLC will present 10 races with first post set for 6:35 p.m.

Graceful Horizon is a 7-year-old daughter of Vertical Horizon who carries the banner of Set The Pace Racing LLC and is reined and trained by Nick Roland. She has 40 wins from her 103 starts with a 1:51 2/5 mark set here last year.

Graceful Horizon rattled off four straight victories between January 18 and February 21, including a victory in the Joe Alto Memorial, and is coming off near miss to Crazy Cute in last week’s Distaff Open.

Divine Art was a solid third in that affair in a race she likely needed for owner/driver/trainer Gerry Longo. She is looking for her 28th lifetime snapshot from 104 trips to the post with $419,000 in her bank account.

Looking at the Sire Stakes, The Minnesota Kid is a son of Karpathian Kid who races for Stephanie Ann Longo, is conditioned by Jose Castillo and will have Luke Plano at the helm.

Sent off at even-money in the first Sire Stakes of the season, he went right to the front for Plano and wasn’t asked for his best as he reported to the wire with a length and a half to spare.

Race honors memory of Rod Knittel

Saturday night’s Rod Knittel Pace at Cal Expo is named for the longtime owner/breeder who passed away in 2022 at the age of 85.

Rod, along with his brother Wayne, bred and campaigned some of the top performers of the last five decades as co-owners of KB Farms.

Included in that outstanding group is Allmyx’sliventexas, who is coming off back-to-back victories here for Wayne, trainer Bob Johnson and driver James Kennedy while pushing his career earnings past the $376,000 mark.

“Rod was a big guy with an even bigger heart,” said fellow owner/breeder and good friend David Neumeister. “He had a wry sense of humor and an infectious laugh.

“As big brother to Wayne and Dennis, he was instinctively protective. If you messed with either one of them, you had Rod to deal with.

“For decades KB Farms has been the largest and most successful standardbred operation in California. Every night for as long as I lived in Bakersfield, I could find Rod driving a tractor around the training track at the farm, getting it in shape for training the next morning.

“He lived a good life, caring for his family, the farm and his friends. He is missed by everyone who was fortunate enough to know him.”

by Mark Ratzky, for Cal Expo Harness