Gold Digger King, reunited with current Hollywood Dayton dash leader Tyler Smith, returned to the winner's circle with an eye-popping gate-to-wire 1:50.1 win in the $24,000 Open I Handicap Pace on Saturday (Oct. 23).
Facing a stout field with collective purse earnings exceeding $4.6 million, the five-year-old gelded son of Ohio stallion Pet Rock blasted to the front and put up fractions of :26.4, :54.2 and 1:21.4 before tacking on a :28.2 final panel while playing 'catch me if you can.'
Sent off as the favourite, the Scott Mogan-trained and Linda Van Camp-owned Gold Digger King paid $3.80 to win. Coupled with runner-up American Mercury (Mitch Cushing), the exacta returned a $20 bill. Next to cross the line in the weekly $24,000 feature were Prince Of Tides (Randy Tharps), Southwind Amazon (Josh Sutton) and Ginger Tree Marty (Jason Beattie).
The fastest mile of the night, however, occurred in a high condition race when driver Tony Hall lowered the lifetime record of Letitrock ($5.60) to 1:50 with an open lengths victory over Twig (Jeremy Smith) and Aeroblast (Kayne Kauffman) despite a damp track and lowering temperatures near the end of the program. It was the sixth seasonal win for the six-year-old gelding by Rockin Image, owned by Lisa Gosselin and trained by Pat Melloy Jr.
Hall notched three other triumphs on the card, including the early daily double with Social Theories ($3.40) and Here Comes Moony ($15). His other win came in the fourth race with Good Ole Ethin ($4).
Josh Sutton managed a natural hat trick winning the ninth race with Nuclear Dragon ($4.40), the 10th with Sugar Island ($7.80) and the 11th behind Lucifers Legend ($6.20).
Scoring driving doubles were Tyler Smith, including the aforementioned $24,000 Open I Handicap; and Jeremy Smith, who topped the $22,000 Open II Handicap with Sunshine List ($6.80).
(With files from Dayton)