Miami Valley Raceway has received a record of 93 nominations for the 2017 edition of the James K. Hackett Memorial series for Ohio-sired sophomore pacers.
A total of 38 fillies are eligible to drop in the box for $12,500 elimination heats on Friday, April 14 while 55 colts can enter for their eliminations a night later. The $40,000 championship races are scheduled for April 21 (fillies) and April 22 (colts), 10 days prior to the first legs of the Ohio Sires Stakes series at Miami Valley.
Heading the list of Hackett Memorial nominees are defending Ohio Sires Stakes champions Berazzled, who won the $250,000 showdown for two-year-old fillies at Northfield Park last September, and Scotch McEwan, who captured the companion colt championship.
A week after the Hackett Memorial finals, Miami Valley will card a trio of $25,000 Lucky Buckeye races for older Ohio-sired horses on Saturday, April 29. All Ohio-sired horses are eligible to enter these open state-restricted races, with no nomination or starting fees, although only the top 10 2016-17 money earners will be drawn into the race if more than 10 enter in any division. Pacers will be divided by sex, while the trotting race is open to square-gaiters of either sex.
Miami Valley will kick off the much-anticipated 2017 Ohio Sires Stakes program with multiple $40,000 splits of the first leg of all four divisions for three-year-olds spread over two days, Monday, May 1 and Tuesday, May 2.
On closing day of the 2017 meet (Monday, May 8), Miami Valley will proudly introduce another new feature — the $200,000 Scarlet & Gray Invitationals. Four $50,000 races will be carded for Ohio-sired three-year-olds, divided by sex and gait. Race Secretary Gregg Keidel will issue an automatic invitation to each of the two Hackett Memorial champions and each first leg Ohio Sires Stakes winner. Strong consideration will be given to place and then show finishers in rounding out the Scarlet & Gray fields.
Miami Valley will also host the first leg of the inaugural Buckeye Stallion Series on May 5 (fillies) and May 6 (colts), for three-year-old Ohio-sired pacers and trotters that do not enter the first Ohio Sires Stakes leg.
Putting an exclamation point on the fourth and most successful meet at Miami Valley will be a pair of $100,000 (est.) Grand Circuit events — the Miami Valley Distaff Trot on Sunday, May 7, and the Chip Noble Memorial Pace on Monday, May 8 — which annually have featured the best older mares in North America.
(Miami Valley Raceway)