When trainer Chris Beaver took a look at the field for this Saturday's $250,000 USD Dayton Trotting Derby (Grade 2), which features nine millionaires and four with lifetime marks of 1:49.3 or faster, he reached a simple conclusion.
“I don’t think it could be any tougher,” said Beaver with a laugh. “Every good horse I could think of entered, pretty much. It might as well be the final of the Breeders Crown, it looks like to me. They definitely got a full field of good horses in that race.”
The Dayton Trotting Derby, one of four $250,000 USD graded stakes on Saturday’s card at Hollywood Dayton Raceway, features the sport’s No. 1-ranked horse in Super Chapter, the No. 3-ranked horse in On To Norway, the 2025 Dan Patch Trotter of the Year (and the race’s defending champion) Lexus Kody and 2025 O’Brien divisional award winner Emoticon Legacy.
Super Chapter is the even-money morning line favourite. The four-year-old son of Chapter Seven-Lifetime Pursuit enters with four straight wins, including the MGM Yonkers International Trot, Maple Leaf Trot and John Cashman Memorial – all Grade 1 events. A Dan Patch Award divisional champ last, he has earned $3.9 million lifetime. He will leave from post four with Dexter Dunn driving for trainer Marcus Melander.
Beaver’s entry in the race is Gimpanzee Dancer, who might not do the quickstep, but still can hoof it on the big stage. He has earned $495,969 this season and heads to the event off a second-place finish behind On To Norway in the Caesars Trotting Classic (Grade 2) last week at Harrah’s Hoosier Park. He will leave from post six with driver David Miller and is 8-1 on the morning line.
The four-year-old son of Gimpanzee-Weslynn Dancer has hit the board in 13 of 16 races this year, winning eight, including two Kentucky Sire Stakes finals for four-year-old trotters at Oak Grove. For his career, he has won 14 times, earned a paycheque in 40 of 45 starts, and banked $1,002,613 for owners Beaver, Carolina Acosta of Radnor, Ohio and Derek Ivany of Toronto, Ont.
“He really is a good horse,” said Beaver. “He doesn’t have the tactical speed that always puts him in the right position, but he can go with them. If a race sets up for him where he doesn’t have to sprint the first quarter or the last quarter to be involved, he can be there with them. Some of them can just trot a faster fraction than he can, that’s what it comes down to. He’s a grinder, but he makes a lot of money grinding.”
Gimpanzee Dancer started his four-year-old campaign by posting two wins and a second-place finish in conditioned races at Miami Valley Raceway, then had five victories and two seconds in seven Kentucky Sire Stakes starts at Oak Grove.
“What has helped him a lot as a four-year-old was all those Kentucky races,” said Beaver. “He pretty much walked through those races and that really helped. But what I’ve been looking for is for him to step up and race well against the top horses and I thought he did in his last start at Hoosier.
“I’ve seen him getting better. The family is that way. His mother got better with age and I’ve had sisters to his mother that were the same; they always seemed to get better as they got older.”
Saturday’s card at Dayton also includes the Dayton Pacing Derby, Dayton Distaff Derby, and Dayton Oaks Derby – all Grade 1 stakes.
Prince Hal Hanover (driver Todd McCarthy, post two, 2-1 morning line odds), Best Chip (Joe Bongiorno, post nine, 3-1) and Ken Hanover (Tim Tetrick, post one, 9-2) are the top choices in the Dayton Pacing Derby. The field also includes defending champion Ervin Hanover.
The 5-2 morning line choice in the Dayton Oaks Derby, for trotting mares, is Warrawee Michelle, who won the Miss Versatility Series final (Grade 3) last week at the Delaware County Fair in Ohio. She will leave from post five with trainer/driver Åke Svanstedt.
In the Dayton Distaff Derby, for pacing mares, two-time defending champ Twin B Joe Fresh is the 2-1 morning line favourite and will leave from post six with Dunn in the sulky.
Racing begins at 6:30 p.m. at Hollywood Dayton Raceway and the graded stakes are races 10 through 13. For Saturday’s free program, which also includes eight Buckeye Stallion Series championships, click here.
(USTA)