The night was supposed to belong to Foiled Again and Creatine, but although each raced very creditably neither was able to capture a Grand Circuit Dayton Derby on Friday night at Hollywood Gaming Dayton Raceway.
Instead stablemate Clear Vision literally nosed out Foiled Again in the $122,000 Dayton Pacing Derby, lowering the track record to 1:49; and Market Share pulled a mild upset in the $162,000 Dayton Trotting Derby, establishing a new track trot standard with the 1:52.4 clocking.
Dancin Yankee (Tyler Buter), a $15,000 supplement, set the early fractions of :25.4 and :53.4 in the pace race, followed closely by Night Pro (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.). Foiled Again (Yannick Gingras) was first to move from fourth and quickly collared the pacesetter prior to the 1:21.1 third quarter split, with Clear Vision (Tim Tetrick) taking full advantage of the cover provided by harness racing’s richest horse.
The pair of Ron Burke trainees pulled away from the rest of the field early in the stretch drive, but neither could separate from the other resulting in a stretch duel of epic proportions. Clear Vision cleared in the final stride of the race, although the finish line crowd was evenly split over which horse prevailed. A long photo finish and the 1:49 flashing on the tote board had the large throng speechless until Clear Vision’s number 2 was posted and the fans erupted into a generous round of appreciative applause as driver Tim Tetrick walked the winner back for the trophy and blanket presentation. Apprentice Hanover (Jody Jamieson) finished third.
Clear Vision is owned by Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi, Panhellenic Stable and Jim Koran of Ohio. The eight-year-old gelding’s lifetime bounty now stands at more than $2.2 million.
Tetrick also steered Market Share, the 2012 Hambletonian winner, to victory in the Grand Circuit trot. The five-year-old Linda Toscano trainee used a strong three-wide brush around the final turn to top longshot Opening Night (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) and favoured Creatine (Dan Noble) in the quickest trot yet at harness racing’s newest venue. Daylon Magician (Jack Moiseyev) reached the quarter-mile marker first in :26.3, but the field was double tiered before the half, reached in :55.1. Creatine launched a first-over attack at that point, but couldn’t sustain it in the final eighth of a mile.
The partnership of Richard Gutnick, TLP Stable and William Augustine own Market Share, who has now won 25 of 55 lifetime starts and more than $3.5 million in purses.
An $11,500 Fillies and Mares Open Pace, named in memory of R. J. “Skeeter” Brown, was also featured on the card. Latenite Rendezvous (Chris Page), making her first start at Dayton Raceway, was victorious for the partnership of Jerry Daugherty, Roger Hall and Page.
The 14-race card produced the highest attendance and handle figures to date, surpassing the October 3 grand opening night numbers.
(HGDR; photo credit, Conrad Photo)