Eighteen of the finest older trotting and pacing mares in North America will descend on Miami Valley Raceway Monday afternoon (May 7).

They will compete in a pair of Grand Circuit races that will highlight Closing Day of the highly successful 87 program 2018 meet, during which over $14 million was distributed in purses.

The contestants in the $81,600 Miami Valley Distaff Trot and the $102,200 Sam ‘Chip’ Noble Memorial Pace have combined for 424 wins in their careers, good for $12,288,695 in earnings. Those figures average out to 23.55 victories and $682,705 earnings per entrant.

Charmed Life (Chris Page-listed driver) has been given the ever-so-slight 5-2 morning line nod in the extremely competitive mare trot. Others who could just as easily become the “off-time” favorite are Barn Girl (3-1, Aaron Merriman), Churita (7-2, Trace Tetrick) or Rose Run Sydney (9-2, Jason Brewer). The remainder of the field consists of Ice Attraction (6-1, Merriman), two-time O'Brien Award winner Caprice Hill (8-1, Yannick Gingras), Barn Bella (10-1 due to the outside post, Jeff Gregory), Sandys Victory (15-1, Kyle Ater) and Consolidator (20-1, TBA).

Shartin N (Tim Tetrick), who captured the $373,000 Blue Chip Matchmaker final in her last outing, will open as the 2-1 morning line choice in the Noble Memorial pace. Blue Moon Stride (3-1, Corey Callahan) and Apple Bottom Jeans (4-1, Victor Kirby) also enter the race off impressive winning efforts in their last races at The Meadowlands. The remaining hopefuls are double O'Brien Award winner L A Delight (6-1, Yannick Gingras), Lakeisha Hall (8-1, Chris Page), Ontario Sires Stakes sophomore champion The Joy Luck Club (10-1 from an outside post, Doug McNair), Medusa (12-1, Tony Hall), Juslikeaqueen (15-1, Jeremy Smith) and Safe From Terror (20-1, Aaron Merriman).

With just four cards left in the Miami Valley season, the excitement over closing weekend is building. The Friday night and Sunday afternoon programs will feature a dozen divisions of first leg Ohio Sires Stakes action for three-year-olds. The Saturday and Monday slates include 18 $15,000 divisions of first round Buckeye Stallion Series competition.

The Friday night post time is 6:05 pm, Saturday is 7:05 (an hour later in deference to the Kentucky Derby), while both Sunday and Monday matinees will commence at 2:05.

(with files from Miami Valley)