Abel Cedillo wins fair feature race

Jockey Abel Cedillo completed a sweep of the weekend feature races at the Sonoma County Fair by guiding Sing and Tell to a front-running victory in Sunday’s $64,800 Luther Burbank Handicap.

While the rider was pleased to pick up another big paycheck, he wasn’t nearly as happy as trainer Holly Evans.

Evans, who has mostly claiming horses in her barn, was beyond ecstatic after posing in the winner’s circle with Cedillo and Sing and Tell.

“I’m overwhelmed,” she said. “I was so nervous waiting for the race to be run.”

Once the stakes event started, Evans didn’t have any trouble spotting Sing and Tell. The five-year-old was in front nearly every step of the 11/16-mile turf race.

Once into the stretch, Cedillo urged the mare to a two-length lead and they held on by three-quarters of a length over Russell Baze and even-money favorite Halo Dolly.

“I thought she’d run well because she’s training better than ever,” Evans said. “I was nervous because I thought she had a big chance to win.”

So did the public as the California-bred was the second choice in the wagering and paid $7.00 for each $2.00 played to win.

Cedillo, who picked up $4,130 as his 10 per cent of the winner’s share, gave credit to Evans.

“She had the horse ready to run her best race,” the Guatemala native said. “She told me to get to the front out of the gate and I was just following orders.”

Co-owners Evans and Joe Daehling shared the winner’s purse of $41,300.

NOTES

Earlier Sunday, the mule Bar JF Hot Ticket won her 50th race. It took the 11-year-old, who is owned by Dave E. Wood and trained by Morris Parker, 75 races to reach the plateau. She beat her nine-year-old sister Bar JF Red Ticket by a length.

Ricardo Gonzalez and Baze both rode multiple winners Sunday. Baze had two while Gonzalez registered a triple. Through three days of racing, Baze leads the standings with seven victories.

Business was slow opening weekend. “The numbers were disappointing,” director of racing Richard Lewis said. “Part of it was because of the heat and also a lot of people from the Bay Area decided not to come up because of the traffic going to Sears Point.” The NHRA drag races were held over the weekend. “We don’t have any conflicts the next two weeks,” Lewis added. “Hopefully, we’ll rally.”

There will be no racing today or Tuesday. Racing resumes for five straight days on Wednesday.