My Buddy Ninkster (Kayne Kauffman) made his initial start at Miami Valley Raceway a memorable one, winning the $20,000 Open Pace in 1:51, topping Astreos Love (LeWayne Miller) and Beach Memories (John DeLong) on Saturday night (February 20).

The Chicago invader, who has been toiling at Balmoral and Hawthorne until being moved into the Chris Short barn in southwest Ohio recently, now has a dozen career wins in 51 tries and earnings of $118,825 for owners John and Mary Krasnican.

Astreos Love, assigned the outside post position on the merits of three straight Open triumphs, charged aggressively to the lead and reached the first quarter pole in :27.1. Beach Memories, off two straight winning qualifiers following a 2015 season with earnings of $188,580, made a decisive quarter move to the front and lead the field through middle panels of :54.3 and 1:22.1 before understandably tiring in deep stretch. Kauffman was content to race My Buddy Ninkster near the rear through the three consecutive :27 and change splits before angling four-wide for an impressive powerful stretch drive that resulted in the quick victory, just one second off the all-time track record.

A $17,000 championship leg of a late-closer for male non-winners of $800 per start was contested a race earlier with Major Blue Coat (Josh Sutton) downing Keystone Real Deal (John DeLong) and Andy Roo (Jeremy Smith) in 1:52.2.

As a lukewarm second choice in the betting, Sutton elected to blast Major Blue Coat directly to the lead and never look back. The strategy worked impeccably well as Andy Roo found the pocket, which relegated the favoured Ross Leonard-trained entrymates Keystone Real Deal and Legal Transfer to settle third and fourth until past the halfway point. With Sutton setting honest fractions of :27.1, :55.3 and 1:23, the first-up overland effort of Keystone Real Deal was impressive, with the Badlands Hanover six-year-old actually nosing in front of Major Blue Chip midway down the stretch. But the winner was game and battled back on the inside to claim the championship.

Jeff Nisonger trains the winning son of Art Major for A Piece Of The Action LLC stable.

(Miami Valley Raceway)