Pair of Sires Stakes at Cal Expo

A pair of $20,000 California Sires Stakes; an Open Pace featuring A Major Omen and an Open Trot that brings out Pridecrest share the spotlight Friday evening (Feb. 16) at Cal Expo.

There will be 10 races decided under the Watch and Wager LLC banner with first post at 9:45 p.m.

The two Sire Stakes give the 3-year-olds their first chance at the big money and it will be interesting to see how they sort themselves out over the next couple of months.

Looking at the Open Pace, A Major Omen has posed for pictures following three of his last five outings for owner/trainer Gerry Longo. He’s guided his charge to the first two of those decisions while Luke Plano did the steering in last week’s clash at the head of the class and is back in the bike Friday.

All three of A Major Omen’s wins have come in coast-to-coast fashion, but he also displayed his versatility when he came from next-to-last to just miss in the Jan. 28 Dave Goldschmidt. He’s eyeing his 43rd lifetime tally with $430,756 in his bank account.

In the Open Trot, Pridecrest is a 12-year-old son of Angus Hall who is owned by Chris Schick, takes his lessons from Kathie Plested and will once again be handled by Mooney Svendsen.

He comes into this assignment with 59 wins from 238 lifetime trips to the post with $523,184 in his bank account and his 1:53.2 mark over this layout is the track record. He won the Joe Lighthill at 14-1 and came right back with an Open score two weeks ago while setting all the fractions.