Pocono invader Dublin Dasher posted a 3-1/2-length score over Maryland Sire Stakes champion Tony Babe in the lone $67,247 Maryland Standardbred Race Fund Stakes for three-year-old male pacers on Sunday, Aug. 11 at Ocean Downs.
Tony Morgan sat off the pace with Dublin Dasher while Tony Babe (Jonathan Roberts) and Better Dig Two (Jared Moyer) duelled through a :28 first quarter, but then the eventual winner surged from fifth to take the lead just before a :57.1 half. Once in front, the Always B Miki-DB Blue Chip gelding was never in doubt, edging clear of Tony Babe through the stretch for a facile 1:55.4 score. Petes For Real (Trae Porter) rallied mildly to nab Better Dig Two for third.
Hunter Oaks trains Dublin Dasher, who scored his third win in five starts as a sophomore and is now a six-time career winner in 13 starts, for owners Alan Johnston and H O Racing Inc. Dublin Dasher paid $2.10 to win.
Morgan also captured the overnight feature, steering On The Cards N ($5.60) to a half-length, 1:52.3 win over even-money choice Fantastic Voyage in the $16,438 Open Handicap Pace. Willard Reynolds trains the nine-year-old Bettors Delight gelding, who now has won 32 times in his career, for owner Mark Howard.
Geralds A Keeper ($4.60) took top billing in the Maryland Standardbred Race Fund events for three-year-old male trotters, coasting to his sixth consecutive win in his $33,699 division and evading pocket rival Ronnie Ridge by 1-3/4 lengths in 1:57.4. Trae Porter drove the Lockkeeper-Brilliance Hanover gelding for trainer John Wagner and owner Kelsey Wagner.
In the other split, Scott Woogen's homebred K J Pro ($8.20) and driver Eric Davis sustained a fourth-to-first brush through the second lap and upended even-money pacesetter Daddy Wags by two lengths in 1:59.1. B. Michael Moffitt trains the Muscle Masive-Progressive Caviar gelding.
Morgan, Hugh O'Neill and Jason Thompson all recorded driving doubles on the 12-race card.
Live harness racing returns to Ocean Downs on Wednesday, Aug. 14. First post is 7:05 p.m.
(Ocean Downs)