It had been three weeks since Churita last raced, but the layoff didn’t seem to bother her a bit.

Churita, a lightly raced five-year-old Airzoom Lindy mare, bested the best male trotters in southern Ohio for the second straight time at Hollywood Dayton Raceway on Thursday night .

In just her 20th start of the year, Churita trotted past a full field of open trotters for trainer-driver Matt Rheinheimer to garner her half of the $18,500 purse with a winning 1:55.3 mile.

Rheinheimer ducked his prize mare off the gate, getting away last from the outermost post position. He probably felt his goose was cooked when he saw pedestrian fractions of :28.2 and :58 put up by pacesetter Fantasy League (Tyler Smith), who eventually finished third. Churita was at the back of the double-tiered field at the half, but swung three-wide and was moved up to fifth at the 1:26.2 three quarter mile marker. With the quickest final split of all, however, she picked up adversaries one at a time through the stretch to prevail.

Dispatched at 9-2 odds, Churita returned $11.60 to her backers while the Exacta with runner-up Mugshot Man (Kyle Ater) kicked back $66.60.

It was the ninth victory of the season for Churita and raised her 2017 bankroll to $148,518.

Career-wise the winner has earned $771,710 in just 66 starts, a very impressive $11,693 lifetime average per start. She Is owned by Porterproffesionalservice of Michigan.

(Hollywood Dayton)