Rosemary Rose (Chris Page) eeked out a narrow victory in the $25,000 Mares Open Pace at Miami Valley Raceway on Friday (February 21), topping longshot Diamondtequilashot (Ricky Macomber Jr.) and favourite Checks On The Way (Trace Tetrick) in a photo finish.
Colorful Sky (Sam Widger) was quickest off the starting car, but finally relinquished to Checks On The Way just past the :26.4 opening quarter-mile. After a single-file :29 second quarter breather, the best ‘girls’ in the region got serious and by the 1:24.1 third station were double tiered from front to back. Rosemary Rose was leading the charge on the outside with Diamondtequilashot in tow. When those two outer flow combatants fanned three-wide at the top of the lane, a fierce and exciting battle ensued all the way down the stretch.
Rosemary Rose reached the wire first in 1:52.3 with the other pair lapped on and earning an identical clocking. The winner paid $7, the exacta returned a healthy $78.80 and the 50-cent trifecta was worth $252.69.
The feature race triumph was one of three on the program for the Chris Page-Ron Burke driver-trainer tandem. They also scored with GD Western Joe (1:51.1, $2.60) in a $14,000 condition pace and Rockin Zoe (1:55, $11.40) in a non-winners of six races condition/claiming event. Page added a fourth tally with Sports Lightning (1:57.2, $29) in a $5,000 claimer for Rob Zink Racing and Strike Point Racing LLC.
Tetrick bettered Page’s ‘grand slam’ by adding “one for the thumb.” Tetrick’s winners were Treacherous Beach (1:58, $16.20), Cantescapemydesire (1:54, $4.80), Scarlet V (1:55.2, $4.20), Tickle My Fancy (1:56, $9) and Debt Motivated (1:52.3, $4.20).
With his handful of winners, Tetrick extended his meet-leading total to 69 with a six-win margin over current runner-up Brett Miller.
Racing resumes Saturday night when the feature will be the $25,000 championship leg of the Bill Dailey Memorial Medley at a distance of 1-1/4 miles.
(Miami Valley Raceway)