The Bethinator, the youngest mare (at age four) with the least earnings in the field, won the Miami Valley $22,500 Mares Open Pace on Friday (January 22).

The win was the Somebeachsomewhere mare's fourth at the top level in her last six tries on the Miami Valley-Hollywood Dayton circuit.

Driver Tyler Smith set sail early and was determined to dictate all the fractions with the razor sharp odds-on favourite. The outcome was never really in doubt as The Bethinator coasted through the mile in fractions of :27.3, :55.4, 1:23.3 and 1:51.4. Although all nine of her challengers had career earnings of more than $200,000, she has just reached $147,674 for her owner/breeder Megan Rogers Racing Stable. The Bethinator is trained by Nelson Willis.

A pair of lucrative Claim To Fame series finals shared the Friday spotlight. The finalists in the $20,000 claiming split for mares chased a purse of $30,000, while the male $12,500 claimers went for $25,000.

Malnificent (Trace Tetrick) proved her many faithful were correct when she fronted the distaff field in 1:52.4 and returned a $3 win mutual. Owned by Ira and Brian Wallach Racing and trained by Tyler George, the winner bested Duck Duck Dragon (Chris Page) and M E Radar Girl (Tyler Smith) to claim the championship.

J M Jet Set (Dan Noble) got the best of a very evenly matched field of championship hopefuls in the male division. Franzo (Sam Widger) and Armabluechipboy N (Kayne Kauffman) were next across the finish line, reached in 1:53. All nine finalists had won a heat of the series in the past two weeks.

Noble’s wife Christi conditions and owns the 11-year-old winner, who now sports 40 career wins and more than $400,000 in lifetime bounty.

(With files from Miami Valley Raceway)