Still recovering from a severe bout with flu which caused him to miss all his drives at Dayton Raceway on Monday night, Kyle Ater returned to the sulky with a vengeance on Wednesday.
The 38-year-old reinsman moved up a notch to fifth in the local dash standings with four wins—all at double-digit mutuel prices!
Ater’s barrage of toteboard bombers began in the second race when he guided the trotter Bad Habit to a 1:59.4 score over Above The Law (Jack Dailey) and Royal Macho (Greg Grismore) at odds of 23-1. It was just the second pari-mutuel win for the four-year-old mare trained by Michael Walker and rewarded patrons who backed her with $48.60 for a $2 wager.
Two races later Ater duplicated the feat with the eight-year-old trotting mare Northmedo Esther, topping Facial Expressions (Hugh Beatty) and Sack Full Of Hope (Dan Noble) and returning $49.00 at the betting windows. It was the 25th lifetime triumph for the Mike Medors trainee, but just the second in 31 tries in 2014.
Hot Flashes gave Ater his third win on the night in the seventh race, beating Upfront Harley (Chris Page) and Sigh Of Relief (Jeff Nisonger) in 1:58.1. It was the first seasonal win in 31 tries for Delvin Criswell’s four-year-old pacing mare and returned another handsome mutuel return, $21.60 for a standard $2 bet.
When trainer Deborah Swartz sent Ater out with Shes A Ball in the next race, it probably seemed like a “chalk” mount to the red-hot driver. Sent to post at just over 4-1 odds, Ater managed his fourth tally in 1:55.2, besting Sams Shuffle (Chris Page) and Yankees Lady (Josh Sutton) and paying $10.40.
Josh Sutton, Dan Noble and Randy Tharps also scored driving doubles on the 12-race card.
With just ten programs remaining in the inaugural season at Hollywood Dayton Raceway, Sutton heads the driver’s standings with 86 victories in 47 nights. He is followed by Chris Page with 75, Dan Noble at 64, Jason Brewer with 52, Kyle Ater's 48, Kayne Kauffman and Randy Tharps with 45 apiece, Greg Grismore has 39, Jeremy Smith is at 37, Shawn Barker II with 25, Brad Hanners at 24 and Tyler Smith's 14. A total of 37 different drivers have won at least one race thus far over the sport’s newest five-eighths mile track.
(Dayton)