Onemorelastchance, the only Ohio-sired horse in the race, captured the $14,000 championship leg of the Look Sharp Series on Sunday afternoon at Miami Valley Raceway.
The nine-year-old gelded son of Towners Big Guy beat a full field of younger combatants for owner Diane Stephenson, trainer Greg Horn and driver Dan Noble. It was the 26th career win for the homebred, who has raced his entire career for the same connections and increased his lifetime earnings to $172,079.
Noble gunned Onemorelastchance to the front early in the mile then held off favoured Foreign Officer (Tyler Smith) and hard-charging Toledo Bend Gator (Chris Page) in 1:55.
The series was named after Look Sharp, a son of Abercrombie, who stood stud at the nearby Hagemeyer Farm for many years and produced countless good race horses, many of whom seemed to getter better with age. The prolific southwest Ohio-sired died in 2014 at the age of 30.
A $16,500 Open Trot was also presented on the matinee program with March Awareness (Chris Page) making his first local appearance a winning one, beating Rehab Mountain (Brad Hanners) and Cantcutthatchip (Jack Dailey) in 1:57. Burke Racing and Weaver Bruscemi LLC own the five-year-old altered son of Ken Warkentin, who now sports 15 wins in just 48 career starts.
In other news, the Saturday night (February 21) program produced a Miami Valley track record handle when $308,977 went through the mutuel windows.
(With files from Miami Valley)