Its Pointless headlines Open Pace

Its Pointless (Kent’s On Nuke), a winner of two of his last three harness racing starts including last week’s top dance, gets the marquee treatment in Saturday night’s Open Pace.

The main event headlines a 10-race Watch and Wager LLC program that begins at 6:35 p.m.

Its Pointless is an 8-year-old homebred son of Kent’s On Nuke who carries the banner of Mark Anderson, takes his lessons from Gordie Graham and will have James Kennedy doing the honors.

A winner of 21 of his 42 lifetime appearances, Its Pointless captured the Dave Goldschmidt Memorial last month and accounted for last week’s Open Pace while establishing a new lifetime mark with the 1:52 4/5 clocking.

Sign Of The Times is having an outstanding meet with victories in the Will Meyers and Steve Wiseman finals and is coming off a solid runner-up finish behind Its Pointless in last week’s top dance for the pacers.

Sign Of The Times is by Special Forces and is owned by Rick Bertrand and Ashlee Glader with Bertrand conditioning and Mooney Svendsen in his usual spot in the sulky.

Alilthundadownunda captured the Open two weeks ago and was a game third after racing first-over in last week’s clash for this group. No matter how things shake out early he should have a major say for Set The Pace Racing LLC and Nick Roland.

Completing the line-up are Capt Jack Hanover, Love Your Work A, Northbrook Ron, Sneaky Hill and Unfiltered.

Plano, Roland play dueling sulkies

It’s a dead-heat at the top of the driver standings this week, with last year’s leading pilot Luke Plano and former champ Nick Roland both sporting 32 trips to the charmed enclosure.

In the training race, Roland has taken over the top spot with 20 victories to 17 for the Quentin Schneider barn.

It will be a busy Saturday night for Plano, who has drives in all 10 races, while Roland has been named to handle eight performers.

There will also be a DHA Free-for-All for the pacing mares, The DHA Arnstine FFA Pace and the Budahn FFA Trot this month.

A reminder that all 20-cent Pick 4s and 20-cent Pick 5s come with reduced 16 percent takeout rate and there is a $20,000-guaranteed gross pool on the early Pick 5 and a $25,000 guarantee on the late Pick 4.

Free past performances for the early Pick 5 and the late Pick 4 are available, click here.

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

by Mark Ratzky, for Cal Expo Harness