Shards Halo N became the latest ‘newbie’ to win the weekly featured $22,500 Open Mares Pace at Miami Valley.
The 10-year-old New Zealand bred daughter of American Ideal, at least three years older than all of her nine adversaries, scored in 1:51.4 for driver Trace Tetrick over Play For Pay (Kayne Kauffman) and Talkaboutaqueen (Brett Miller).
The favourite was making just her seventh start since the beginning of 2020, but increased her lifetime win total to 24 and raised her career bounty to $176,018. Shards Halo N, owned by trainer Tyler George and Scott George, was the fifth different winner of the top distaff race at Miami Valley in recent weeks.
Play For Pay put up all the fractions (:26.4, :55.4 and 1:23.2) before Tetrick and Shards Halo N swept to the front midway down the stretch during the :28.2 final panel.
Favourites won both divisions of the final preliminary leg of the Herb Coven, Jr. Memorial Series for non-winners of four pacing mares, setting the stage for next week’s $25,000 championship showdown.
Keystone Eureka (Tetrick, 1:53.3, $2.20) was a handy winner over Better Days Ahead (Mitch Cushing) and My Lady Dude (Josh Sutton) in the first split. Coupled with a second place finish in the first leg, the four-year-old daughter of Somebeachsomewhere will be highly regarded when the finalists answer the call to post. Ryan Miller trains the winner for the Miller Racing Stable Inc.
Coconut Beach (Tyler Smith, 1:52.2, $4.80) extended her win streak to three by topping Ellagator (Miller) and Anthem (Cushing). Jeff Brewer owns and trains the four-year-old daughter of Art Major who is also likely to attract the attention of a multitude of handicappers working next Friday’s series finale.
The nine mares who will comprise the Coven Memorial final field are: Coconut Beach, Keystone Eureka, Anthem, Real Rockin Ravi, Better Days Ahead, Ellagator, Smoknthemnbluejeans, Sara Jane and Harper.
Racing resumes Saturday (March 6) at Miami Valley with a 4:05 p.m. post time. Two open paces and four divisions of the final preliminary leg of the George Williams Memorial Series will be featured.
(Miami Valley Raceway)