Running Aces’ Tuesday evening (June 18) program of live racing featured a $16,000 Mares Open Handicap Pace event that housed a full field of nine.
The talk of the tote board were the two Tim Maier trainees: Cenalta Diamond (9-5, Tim Maier) from Post 9, who was coming in with two Open wins from her last three starts, and Pull The Shade (2-1, Dean Magee) from Post 7, who was showing two seconds and a third from three local starts at the top level.
Last week’s winner, Delightfully Wild (who was driven by Nick Roland) was also well supported at the windows at 7-2, and she left alertly from Post 8. She mixed it up early with Cenalta Diamond, who prevailed from the skirmish to set the pace (:27.1) while Delightfully Wild settled for the pocket.
The outer flow developed at the :56.4 half mile when Alwaysalittlemore (Williams Hernandez) came first up and Place N First (Rick Magee) followed, with Pull The Shade joining the outer lane for the third-over position.
Alwaysalittlemore surged quickly to the leader and a furious battle ensued, with Cenalta Diamond fighting hard to fend off her rivals. Alwaysalittlemore wrangled the lead away near the third juncture (1:25.1) and led the field into the lane with nearly two lengths to spare; but Place N First began to roll as they neared the wire and was able to surge past for a half-length victory in 1:53.3 over Alwaysalittlemore and a fast closing Pull The Shade.
Place N First picked up her first win of the season. She is a 10-year-old daughter of Place To Be out of the Blissfull Hall mare Memory Hall and she is owned and trained by Jenni King and has now won 33 career races and amassed $197,696 in earnings.
Driver Lemoyne ‘Mooney’ Svendsen led the night with three wins for his first hat-trick of the summer.
The 50-cent Hi-5 wager in Race 8 drew plenty of support from players, converting a $5,370 carryover into a total pool well in excess of $30,000 which helped to produce a robust payoff of $3,434.80 for each winning ticket. The 20-cent Pick-5 wager now carries a Jackpot of $11,055.79 going into the Saturday night (June 22) program, which will kick off with first post at 7:00 p.m. (CDT).
(Running Aces)