California Sire Stakes at Cal Expo

A $10,000 California Sire Stakes for the 3-year-old pacing fillies and a $12,851 carryover in the early Pick 5 are among the highlights on Friday evening’s harness racing program at Cal Expo Harness.

There will be 10 races conducted under the Watch and Wager LLC banner with first post set for 6:45 p.m.

Thanks in large part to a 63-1 upset last week by Cal’s Hope, nobody was able to correctly tab Sunday evening’s late Pick 5, resulting in the nearly 13K carryover.

The 20-cent early Pick 5 will be held on races 1 through 5 with a $75,000-guaranteed gross pool. Like the late 20-cent Pick 5 and the 20-cent Pick 4, the bet comes with a reduced 16 percent takeout rate every night.

Looking at the Sire Stakes, Cenalta Flash took down the first trophy for the sophomore pacing fillies two weeks ago, making her the one to beat for owners Gordon, Helen and Myma Empey with Gordon the conditioner and Rene Goulet back at the controls.

Taking her on will be Toot Toot with Chip Lackey; Wind Meup to Live, Cordarius Stewart and Youre Kitten Me for Nick Roland.

Friday night’s third race is the Double Down Invite, which finds the pacers Gunny Wilson, West Central Beach and Lincoln taking on the trotters Hypocrisy, Jesse’s Student, Major Al-Mar and Warrawee Welcome.

Marced Magic, Plano joins forces for another score

Luke Plano and the 8-year-old pacer Marced Magic go together like peanut butter and jelly, and after last week’s

score have teamed for three straight victories for owner Robin Clements and trainer Quentin Schneider.

The two had been apart since a January 23 tally, with Marced Magic losing three in a row, but even some early trouble couldn’t stop this dynamic duo last week in a solid performance.

“Luke fits him like a glove and knows just how to get him to go,” Clements praised after the win. “I thought we were beat after being impeded on the first turn, but Luke caught the leader and got the horse home for the win.”

For the record, Marced Magic has now won 39 of his 169 career appearances with a 1:52 3/5 mark that was set here last season with Plano and he recently went over the $200,000 earning plateau.

“I picked up Magic a couple of years ago from Cory and Vikki Stratton when he was racing at Yonkers,” Robin related. “Cory felt he would be better on a mile track as he has a big kick coming come and on the smaller tracks he couldn’t kick into gear very fast as he is more of a grinder.

“He’s a nice little horse to work with, but he does have some issues with trusting people. It took us awhile to get him to poke his head out of the stall or not retreat when you walked by. He’s come out of his shell now with Kim (Schneider) handling him.

“They say a happy horse is a winning horse and I can’t thank Kim and Quentin and their entire crew enough for the great care that Magic gets.”

By Mark Ratzky, for Cal Expo Harness