KD Amazin Spirit giving Willey wins, thrills

KD Amazin Spirit lived up to his name last weekend, overcoming some interference at the head of the stretch to reel in heavily-favored Franky Provolone with new best friend Scott Cisco giving directions at Cal Expo. 

 

KD Amazin Spirit, a 7-year-old son of Thadrow, is going strong as ever these days and you can say the same thing about his 78-year-old owner/trainer/breeder Keith Willey, who is thrilled with the way his trotter is flying home on a regular basis. Willey had also been his regular pilot up until this meet when Cisco assumed those duties.

 

"Scott has done a great job with Spirit and he absolutely loves the horse,” Keith related. "I actually prefer to drive, but I have all those memories from last winter of the cold and the mud and asking myself, ‘What am I doing out here?' This way has worked out real well.”

KD Amazin Spirit was sitting a second-over trip to the drive in last week's outing and looked poised to pounce when Claudius Augustus made a break directly in front of him and briefly impeded the Willey colorbearer. Shaking it off like a pro, he went about his business and posted a 1 1/4-length score.

 

"I have to think most other trotters would have gone offstride at that point, but he gathered himself and got the leader,” Willey noted. "I think he may have impressed me the most a few weeks ago in a race he didn't win. He was fanned extremely wide to the stretch and came a :27 and change final quarter and just missed that night.”

 

This hard-knocking trotter is one of many performers to carry the KD initials for Willey over the last two and a half decades. "We had so many of the names we were putting in get turned down; my wife Debbie and I decided to start using our initials in front of the names to get them through,” Keith explained.

 

Mission accomplished and carried proudly by this trotter. (Cal Expo)