My Buddy Ninkster, a bridesmaid on four occasions against Open I company already this year, finally broke through and visited the winner’s circle following an impressive 1:49.4 score in Saturday (April 1) night’s $22,000 feature event at Miami Valley.
It was the fastest of the five-year-old Dali gelding's 22 career wins, knocking one-fifth of a second off his mark of 1:50 taken at nearby Dayton Raceway last season.
Using the advantageous rail post position, My Buddy Ninkster's driver Josh Sutton let even-money favourite Franzo (Greg Grismore) and eventual runner-up Feelnlikearockstar (Mike Oosting) clear to the front during an opening quarter in a quick :26.3. Content to sit through middle splits of :55.1 and 1:22.2, Sutton waited for the stretch to take on the leaders. Finding his best gear in the late-going, My Buddy Ninkster streaked to a closing :27 panel to pull away by a length and a half at the wire. Bob Phillips trains the winner for John and Mary Krasnican.
A pair of second leg divisions were contested in the Tom Tharps Memorial Series for male pacers that were non-winners of six pari-mutuel races or $60,000 lifetime on March 11.
Control Tower (Jason Brewer), who skipped the initial leg, punched a ticket to next week’s final with a one-length win over Onefinejimmerjohn (Peter Wrenn) and Heisenberg Z Tam (Jeremy Smith) in 1:53.2. Dan Noble trains the five-year-old son of Panspacificflight for Stephen Sexton.
The second split went to Evergreen Elite, who now has back-to-back impressive scores in the series — this one in 1:51. Jason Brewer also guided this winner and likely will stay in his sulky for next Saturday’s $27,500 championship tilt. They bested Hustling Charley (Josh Sutton) by two and a half lengths, with Sossys King Kong (Chris Page) garnering the show dough.
All six of the top three finishers in round two will advance to the final, where they will be joined by Rockin Panda, Nvestment Blue Chip and Cracker Cam if all who are qualified enter the race.
(With files from Miami Valley Raceway)