Rockn Stien, a homebred owned by trainer Bobby Brower and partner Debra Garland, trotted to a new lifetime mark of 1:54.1 to capture Monday afternoon’s $15,000 Open at Hollywood Dayton Raceway.
Content to get away fifth in the early going, driver Josh Sutton pushed the accelerator before the field reached the midway point, moving up to third on the rim at the :56.4 half. By the time the third stanza was clocked in 1:24.3 Rockn Stien was stride for stride with Insomniac (Brady Galliers), who had dictated all the fractions. Revenue Agent (Peter Wrenn), who was last week’s feature winner, joined the fray briefly by swinging three-wide approaching the head of the stretch, but shortly after the trio straightened out the winner demonstrated his dominance and pulled away to a relatively comfortable victory. Insomniac held for second, with Revenue Agent, Atlas Peak and Parkhill Lancelot picking up the remaining cheques.
Rockn Stien is a lightly raced four-year-old Valley Victor gelding who now sports just seven wins in 36 career tries. The lion’s share of the Open purse increased his lifetime bounty to $122,540.
(Hollywood Dayton Raceway)