Igottafeelinfran, the lone Buckeye-bred mare in the field, used a perfect pocket trip coupled with cooperative weather and the fastest racing surface in awhile to win the $15,500 Open Mares Pace at Miami Valley Raceway on Friday night in 1:52.4.
It was just the second 2015 start for the reigning Ohio Sires Stakes older distaff champion, so driver Dan Noble was content to allow longshot All Terror (Kayne Kauffman) to cut the remaining fractions after pushing her to a speedy :27.3 opening panel. Following middle splits of :57 and 1:25, the leading pair separated themselves from the rest and staged an epic stretch duel with the winner nosing out the pacesetter following a :27.4 closing quarter. Stucklikeglue (Greg Grismore) closed well to grab the show spot after a second-over journey.
The five-year-old daughter of Feelin Friskie now has 18 wins on her impressive resume in addition to 22 other place and show finishes from just 51 lifetime races. Jerry Zosel and Kathy Ratcliff bred Igottafeelinfran and have since added Kimberly Dailey, wife of trainer Jim Dailey, as a partner on the career winner of $381,746.
A race earlier, in the $11,000 top conditioned pace for mares, Betterluvnexttime (Josh Sutton) tied the 1:52.1 track record for older female pacers, established during Miami Valley’s inaugural season in 2014 by Holiday Shopper. The seven-year-old American Ideal mare, owned by Daniel Mitchell and trained by Virgil Morgan Jr., just edged Carlina Hanover (Kayne Kauffman) with Multiple Sources (Greg Grismore) garnering the show dough. Betterluvnexttime is closing in on a half million dollars in lifetime earnings, the result of 39 victories from just 95 career starts.
(Miami Valley)