Kirk Breed, Sire Stakes at Cal Expo

Overthemoonforyou (Karpathian Kid), a winner of 12 of 13 starts at the meet; and arch-rivals Graceful Horizon and Divine Art headline Friday night’s harness racing co-features at Cal Expo.

Overthemoonforyou has top billing in the $20,000 California Sire Stakes for the 4-year-old pacing mares while Graceful Horizon and Divine Art loom the major players in the $12,500 Kirk Breed for pacing distaffers.

An 11-race program is on tap with first post set for 6:45 p.m. with the Kirk Breed occupying the 6th race slot while the Sire Stakes follows as the 7th event on the evening.

Overthemoonforyou is having a sensational season for owner Qks Racing, trainer Quentin Schneider and pilot Aaron Lehmann and is seeking a sweep of the Sire Stakes for the division.

Meanwhile, Graceful Horizon comes into the Breed having won six of her 11 starts on the season for Set The Pacing Racing LLC and driver/trainer Nick Roland.After having to settle for minor awards behind Divine Art in four straight outings between March 8 and April 5, she got her revenge in last week’s Distaff Open.

Graceful Horizon motored right to the front in that affair, was nicely rated by Roland and held safe by three quarters of a length over Divine Art.

The latter is a 6-year-old daughter of Outrageous Art who is owned, trained and driven by Gerry Longo and is looking for her 41st snapshot from 107 lifetime appearances.

She rattled off four straight impressive victories coming into last week’s Open, including wins in the Rod Knittel and Alan Kirschenbaum, that had the pace dynamics working against her in that last tour and went a big mile to complete the exacta.

Change of tactics for Officer Jim

After three straight appearances where he motored right to the front, including a victory two starts back, some of Officer Jim’s backers last week may have been surprised when driver James Kennedy took the pacer back to next-to-last off the gate.

The plan worked out to perfection, however, as Officer Jim was able to follow the live cover of favored Unfiltered and motored home when it counted to post the 9-1 upset in a solid 1:53 3/5 mile.

It was the 38th lifetime score from 110 starts for the son of American Ideal who carries the banner of Debra McCarthy and hails from the Gordie Graham barn.

“What a great horse to be around,” Graham noted after the victory. “I totally enjoyed watching him win from off the pace.

“After seeing him get butchered the week before against in the Open, I didn’t want to see him go down the road again. James ducked and the plan was to be pulled up into contention.”

Things crystalized when Unfiltered came out and Officer Jim was able to draft behind that foe until straightening for home. “When James showed him the whip, he absolutely exploded,” Graham added.

by Mark Ratzky, for Cal Expo Harness