The featured event on the Thursday, May 22 card at Running Aces was the $20,486 Mares Open Pace which offered a talented field of eight competitors. The betting public honed in on six-year-old Kele Kele as their top choice at 4-5 and she did not disappoint her backers, delivering a strong performance in her local debut.
Trainer/driver Brady Jenson sent her to a quick start from post five, ultimately prevailing in an early skirmish for the top which included rivals Ideal Skies (Billy Mann) and Graceful Horizon (Luke Plano). Kele Kele took control just after the :28.1 quarter, while Ideal Skies was relegated to the pocket and Graceful Horizon remained parked out and challenging for the front as they completed the half in :57.1.
Twist Little Girl N (Rick Magee) provided some backstretch excitement with a sharp looking move from fifth to second and was three-wide at the 1:25.2 three-quarters checkpoint.
In the lane it was clearly a two-horse affair and Kele Kele dug in gamely to hold Twist Little Girl N at bay and score an impressive tally by 1-1/2 lengths while Ideal Skies was third best in the 1:53 mile.
A daughter of So Surreal - Lightning D Dube, Kele Kele is also owned by Jenson, in partnership with Ken Stauffer and Brady Anderson. She paid $3.60 to win.
Overthemoonforyou (Aaron Lehman, $7.80) benefitted from a patient steer and saved ground throughout en route to her eighth consecutive win and her 13th win from 14 starts in 2025, maintaining her current status as the winningest Standardbred in North America so far this year. She paced home in :27.3 and swept through the passing lane late to get the victory by one length in 1:55 in a $12,500 conditioned pace.
Overthemoonforyou is a four-year-old daughter of Karpathian Kid and is owned by QKS Racing and trained by Quentin Schneider.
The Minnesota Kid (Plano, $2.80) delivered another big performance to capture the $11,806 sophomore open pace in 1:55.3 to advance to four wins in a row and six wins from eight starts on the season for owner Stephanie Longo and trainer Jose Castillo. The son of Karpathian Kid now shows a total of nine career wins.
Live Racing returns to Running Aces on Sunday, May 25 with a 10-race program which gets underway at 6 p.m. (CDT) and offers ‘Pepsi Family Night’ with kid’s activities as well as a special visit from “The Handicapping Herpetologist” Keith Gisser, who will have his live, interactive reptile display with him. There is also a Memorial Day t-shirt giveaway, plus trout fishing, food trucks, sole survivor contest and more.
(With files from Running Aces)