Miami Valley Raceway will kick off its 2018 season with a 12-race card tonight (Fri., Jan. 5) at 6:05 p.m. Eastern.

“Mother Nature hasn’t been too kind for our opening night,” said Race Secretary Gregg Keidel, “but temperatures are forecast for 9 degrees (Fahrenheit) at first post and 2 degrees at final race post time. The wind chill will start out around zero and never get worse than 10 below, so we are a go. Of course, we’ll have to shorten the scoring down time considerably to protect our drivers and horses from the cold as much as possible. Our track crew has done a phenomenal job getting the racing surface in exceptional shape despite this prolonged cold spell.”

The weekly Fillies & Mares Open Pace is slated as the 10th race on the inaugural program. Three recent open class winners—Juslikeaqueen, Safe From Terror and Jerseylicious—drew outside of five other recent high-condition class winners, setting up an interesting contest.

(Miami Valley Raceway)