In front of a packed house on Opening Night of Miami Valley Raceway’s 2016 meet, driver Dan Noble--one of southwest Ohio’s favourite sons--reached the coveted $20 million career earnings plateau.
His milestone score came in the fifth race when he guided Turbo Mach to an impressive 1:52.1 front-stepping, nine-length romp. A five-year-old altered son of Mach Three, the winner cruised through early fractions of :27, :55.2 and 1:23.1 before securing his fifth lifetime win and a new lifetime mark. Turbo Mach paid a healthy $15.20 and was followed across the finish line by Play Guitar (Kyle Ater) and Friendsinhiplaces (Trace Tetrick). Marital Property LLC owns Turbo Mach, who is trained by Brian Georges.
Noble, age 32, is a fourth generation Ohio horsemen. His great grandfather Sam O. Noble took up residence at the Xenia, Ohio fairgrounds decades ago. The stable torch was first passed to his son Sam Noble Jr., then to the late great Ohio Hall Of Famer Sam ‘Chip’ Noble, and now to Chip’s son Dan, who is still stabled in the same barn as all his family predecessors in Xenia.
With 4,235 wins and $20 million in purse earnings, Dan Noble has a long list of harness racing accomplishments. In 2011, he was the National Driving Champion on the merits of his industry-leading 773 wins. In 2014, he guided Creatine to a 1:51.3 triumph in a $166,300 American-National aged trot at Balmoral Park. In addition to several Ohio Sires Stakes championships, Noble steered Northern Miss Hall to back-to-back Kentucky Sires Stakes championships for juvenile trotting fillies in 2011 and 2012. The purple-and-white clad reinsman’s biggest thrill, though, “was Pet Rock’s world record 1:47.2 win in the inaugural $125,000 Jim Ewart Memorial Invitational at Scioto Downs in 2013.”
A $20,000 Open Pace was the feature on opening night and Talk Strategy upset at 6-1 odds, giving driver Trace Tetrick his third success of the evening. Claimed four weeks ago for $20,000 by CC Racing LLC, the six-year-old Western Terror gelding worked out a second-over trip before swinging three-wide off the final curve to score in 1:53.1. Favourites Fancy Creek Elusiv (Chris Page) and Jammin Joshua (Tyler Smith) mixed it up nose-to-nose during the middle splits, allowing Talk Strategy to pick up the pieces in the lane. The win was the 15th lifetime victory for Talk Strategy and the first for new trainer Tyler George.
(With files from Miami Valley)