Our Dragon King broke the all-age, all-time track record at Miami Valley Raceway on Saturday night, scorching the five-eighths mile oval in 1:49.4—the first sub-1:50 mile in the track’s three years of existence.
Leading driver Josh Sutton very rarely chooses off a Virgil Morgan, Jr.-trainee, but he must have known something about the current form of Our Dragon King as he opted to drive trainer Tyler George’s outstanding six-year-old in a $15,000 undercard conditioned event.
Following a first-quarter tussle with Schoolkids (Brady Galliers), Our Dragon King cleared to the front just past the quarter mile station in :26.1. From there he stopped half and three-quarters teletimers in :54.1 and 1:21.2 before urging the new track record holder through a :28.2 closing split with a commanding six-length lead.
Freedomformysoul (Dan Noble) took full advantage of a break by favoured K Ryan Bluechip and captured the $25,000 championship final of the Tom Tharps Memorial Series at Miami Valley Raceway in 1:52.1.
Noble left aggressively with the four-year-old son of If I Can Dream, dropped into the two-hole temporarily, then pointed his charge to the front of the field. Valiente Stride (driven by Tom Tharps’ son Randy) got a pocket ride throughout from the rail and finished just three-quarters of a length short at the wire. SOS Justified (Kayne Kauffman) also raced gamely and grabbed the show spot.
Rocco Ruffolo owns Freedomformysoul, who won for the seventh time and upped his earnings to $118,530. He is conditioned by Jim Ellison.
Earlier on the card Rockin Ron (Chris Page) swept to his ninth consecutive victory and second straight at Miami Valley capturing the $20,000 Open Pace in 1:50.2.
(Miami Valley Raceway)