Thursday night’s (May 6) action at Cal-Expo is spiced by a $3,731 carryover in the Super High 5, with the pool expected to be $10,000 when all is said and done.
 
The Super High 5 is a $1 wager that is decided on the 10th race each night and challenges players to predict the first five finishers across the line.  Racing secretary Fred Kuebler does his best to put the most contentious race of the evening in that spot in hopes of producing a large payoff.
 
Thursday’s main event is a $3,300 pacing affair that has Cycle Power gunning for his third straight victory for owner/trainer Nathalie Tremblay and driver Steve Wiseman.  Last week, he tracked in fourth and then streaked home in :27.1 over a sloppy track to seal the deal.
 
 
This weekend will find the third round of Sire Stakes action for the 3-year-old trotters and pacers, with the fillies spotlighted on Friday (May 7) and the colts doing their thing on Saturday night (May 8), while Saturday will also feature the opening leg of the TVG Amateur Driver series.
 
Looking at the two stakes for the males, Franks Best has dominated the trotters with victories in five of the six stakes clashes for the division, while Dancing Barry has four trophies on his mantle.  Both have swept the first two big-money gatherings this season.
 
Among the distaffers, the pacer Upncoming Prospect and trotter Acapulco Gold both accounted for the first Sire Stakes clash back in November, but hadn’t tallied again in big-money competition until two weeks ago, when they both registered upsets in their respective contests.
 
 
Meanwhile, the local amateur pilots will be competing in two upcoming late-closing series here at Cal Expo, the first one beginning this Saturday.  They are exclusively for amateurs and sponsored by TVG.
 
Each series will feature two legs and a final with an estimated purse of $8,000.  The first series will be decided over three consecutive Saturdays and is a conditioned claiming event with tags on the first two legs of $4,000 and $4,500, plus allowances.