Beautiful Lather stalked the leader, sprung to the front, and held off a closing Papi Grad to take the Thursday, Nov. 6 conditioned feature at Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway.
A full field of 10 looked to capture the $23,944 event for distaffs, and there was a three-horse scramble for the early lead. Beautiful Seaside (Trevor Smith) cleared to the top and completed the opening quarter in a quick :26.2 before cruising to the half in :55.4. Naked On A Hill (Chris Page) came to the outside in the clubhouse turn, flushing out Beautiful Lather (Sam Widger) and Papi Grad (Luke Hanners), who were first- and second-over, respectively, to three-quarters in 1:23.2. Papi Grad had to go three-wide in the final turn, and Beautiful Seaside was the first to turn into the lane, but Beautiful Lather passed the leader in the final 1/16th of the mile and held off Papi Grad by a neck. Beautiful Seaside finished third.
The winning time of 1:51.4 established a new lifetime mark for Beautiful Lather, a four-year-old Lather Up-Profound Beauty mare. She is now 14-for-55 lifetime with $300,269 in earnings. Chris McGuire trains her for Johnny Stant. She paid $19.40 to win.
In the night’s third race, a $18,310 non-winners-of-one trot, owner/driver Frode Fladen steered Muscle Maximus to a come-from-behind upset at 15-1. A three-way scramble occurred for early control of the race, with Mjs Major Tom (Hugh Beatty) going ahead of Gone In A Flash (Brett Miller) at the quarter in :28. Those two briefly changed positions and then back again before the half-mile station in :57.4. Mjs Major Tom opened up some daylight and was four lengths clear of the first-over Starts With Love (Bruce Sturgeon) at the three-quarters in 1:27. The eventual winner came from well back in the field of 10 and was able to close the gap and pass the leader in mid-stretch, and he pulled away by 2-1/2 lengths over another closer in Deans Lucky Day (Chris Page) in 1:57. Mjs Major Tom was third.
The winning freshman son of Muscle Hill-Sette Deo is trained by Rene Sejthen. He is now one-for-five lifetime. The win price was $32.60.
Widger and Page both finished the night with three trips to the Dayton Raceway winner’s circle.
Dayton Raceway will host its next card on Friday afternoon with the first of 14 races set for 4 p.m.
(Dayton Raceway)