Top trotter Rehab Mountain and top pacer One Lucky Dragon were repeat winners in their respective Open class races at Hollywood Dayton Raceway on Saturday night (October 10), but a blistering 1:51 divisional track record mile in a $7,000 condition pace stole the show.
Sports Sinner became the fastest four-year-old in the two-year history of the Dayton Raceway. Driver Chris Page sat a pocket trip through fractions of :25.4, :54.4 and 1:23 before unleashing a :27.3 closing panel with the son of Western Ideal to best St Lads Zoom Zoom (Jason Brewer) and Straight Comic (Ken Holliday) by over six lengths in the record performance.
Deborah Swartz now trains Sports Sinner, who took his record of 1:50 at The Red Mile six weeks ago, for owner Perkins Racing Stable LLC.
The track record was the 20th one lowered in the first 17 nights of racing during Hollywood Dayton's second season.
In his next start, Sports Sinner may well have to face One Lucky Dragon, who won his second straight Open over the swift five-eighths mile oval in 1:52.3.
Driver Randy Tharps got away fifth with the six-year-old Dragon Again gelding, then launched a sustained first-over attack just before reaching the quarter-pole. After racing side-by-side for almost all of the remaining three-quarters of the mile, One Lucky Dragon finally wore down pacesetting Ardyne Ace (Kayne Kauffman) to win by a half-length. Westport (Dan Noble) rallied for an impressive third-place finish.
Partners John McGill and Brian Carsey own the winner and entrust the training to Chris McGuire.
The track partnered with The Breast Cancer Foundation of Dayton to present a day-long "Join The Fight & Raise Awareness" campaign. Highlight of the activities was the $15,000 Pink Ribbon Open Trot won by Rehab Mountain (Dan Noble), an incredible eight-year-old gelding who has now won 11 races to go with seven place finishes and earned $132,376--all in overnight races in Ohio--in 2015. His winning mile was clocked in 1:56.1.
Trained and driven by the late Brad Hanners until six weeks ago, Travis Redden has now taken over the conditioning duties of the pride of the B6 Racing Stable.
In addition to the Pink Ribbon Trot, the day's activities included a 5K morning run as well as fundraising raffles and auctions to benefit The Breast Cancer Foundation.
(With files from Dayton Raceway)