Granite paced the fastest mile of the meet thus far when winning the $30,000 Open Handicap Pace on Saturday (Jan. 4) at Miami Valley Raceway in 1:52.4.

The Ken Rucker-trained seven-year-old by Real Desire won seven races and finished in the money on 24 of 35 occasions in 2019, banking $150,365 for The Panhellenic Stable. Lifetime, Granite now has 28 victories from 126 starts and $522,775 in bounty.

Winning driver Jeremy Smith took full advantage of a pocket ride throughout the mile, following favoured Im A Big Deal through fractions of :26.4, :55.4 and 1:24.1. When first-over challenger Fan Of Terror—assigned the outside post following two-straight Open wins at Hollywood Dayton—faded slightly just after entering the stretch, Granite pounced on the leader and then held off a furious late charge from runner-up Lifewithjohn to secure the victory. My Hero Ron also had late pace to finish third, while Fan Of Terror, Im A Big Deal and Tyd Theglyde also picked up checks in the ten horse field.

Granite paid $16.40 to win, the exacta returned $147.20 and the 50-cent trifecta kicked back a healthy $265.35.

Jeremy Smith fashioned a Grand Slam on the first dozen races. In addition to his feature race win with Granite, his tallies came behind trotter Doctor Blizzard (1:58.2, $42.20) for trainer Mike Polhamus, A True Rock Star (1:55, $34.20) for trainer Aaron Hamilton and Monte Cristo (1:54.1, $7.00) for trainer Mike Arnold.

Miami Valley will present the first of three consecutive matinee programs on Sunday (Jan. 5) afternoon. Post time on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday is 2:05 p.m.

(Miami Valley Raceway)