The 2023 Dan Patch Older Female Pacer of the Year and O'Brien Award runner-up, Grace Hill, won her first start of 2024 at Eldorado Scioto Downs on Friday, May 17.
Leaving from their assigned post eight, Tony Hall sent Grace Hill straight to the top and won the $36,986 Fillies & Mares Open Handicap Pace by three-quarters of a length in 1:50.3.
Trained by Virgil Morgan Jr., Grace Hill set opening fractions of :26.3, :55 and 1:22.1. Coming home in :28.2, the six-year-old daughter of Always B Miki-Western Silk held off stablemate Alexa Skye (Dan Noble), who finished second, and a hard-charging Scorecard Dandy (Sam Widger), who was third.
Grace Hill, owned by Tom Hill, earned $643,276 and took her 1:47.4 lifetime mark in the Roses Are Red Stakes at Woodbine Mohawk Park in 2023 on her way to divisional Dan Patch honours. She qualified three times before making her seasonal debut at Scioto. The win was her 30th in 62 career starts and pushed her lifetime earnings over $1.9 million.
The Friday evening card also featured a $35,616 Open Handicap Trot, won by Spitfire Oversees and Brett Miller in 1:53.2. The four-year-old ridgling by International Moni is trained by Stacey Van Huizen for Thestable Spitfireovrsees. He now has six wins and $124,417 earned in his 14 seasonal starts. Scorecard Dan (Sam Widger) finished second and Wildfire Seelster (Jeremy Smith) was third.
Scioto’s weekend action continues on Saturday, May 18 with 16 races on tap and a first post time of 5:45 p.m. The $27,000 USD Open Pace headliner has last week’s runner-up, Little Rocket Man, posted as the 2-1 morning line favourite, even while assigned the outside post nine. The meet’s leading driver, Jeremy Smith, will once again sit behind the Ken Rucker trainee. Catch track announcer Barry Vicroy’s interview with Smith on the Scioto pre-card show starting at 5:30 p.m.
(With files from Scioto Downs)