Tricky Nick completed his own Miami Valley Raceway hat trick on Tuesday afternoon when he captured the $25,000 championship of the Dr. Dan Farwick Memorial trotting series.
It was his third consecutive victory since shipping from The Meadows to Miami Valley specifically for this three week long late closer.
Trainer Norm Parker at The Meadows had been training the four-year-old Bands Gold Chip gelding for owners Megan Rogers and Derek Jacobus, but shipped him to the Randy Tharps Stable after nominating him to The Farwick – an event written for non-winners of six pari-mutuel races at time of nomination.
With the three Miami Valley wins for trainer-driver Tharps, Tricky Nick now has eight pari-mutuel track wins and is nearing $100,000 in career earnings.
The winner had to work hard to gain the front end from post position three, then was pressured all the way to a sub :57 half over a rain-dampened track. Still Tharps was able to keep Tricky Nick alive through a gruelling back half and hold off fellow preliminary heat winners Infiniti AS (Chris Page) and Honey B (Kyle Ater), who completed the trifecta, in 1:56.1.
The Dr. Dan Farwick Memorial championship was the ninth and last of the 2016 “Lebanon Legends” late closers established in 2015 to honour the memory of notable great horsemen who made Lebanon Raceway their base of operations over a prolonged period of time in years gone by.
(Miami Valley Raceway)