Millionaires Atlanta and Shartin N, arguably the finest active female trotter and pacer on the planet, respectively, will be in action this coming Monday (May 6).
The mares are scheduled to face the starting gate at Miami Valley Raceway, as they will contest $100,000 Grand Circuit dashes at the Ohio track. Miami Valley’s closing-day features have been carded as Race 8 and Race 10 on the 14-dash program, which will begin at 2:05 p.m.
Atlanta, last year’s Hambletonian winner, will be making her initial 2019 start off of an impressive 1:52.3 qualifier at the Meadowlands Racetrack in her first effort for new trainer Ron Burke. Yannick Gingras, who qualified Atlanta without trotting hopples for the first time, will be steering the millionaire daughter of Chapter Seven in her 2019 pari-mutuel debut. Atlanta, who is the likely odds-on favourite, is owned by Crawford Farms, Bradley Grant and Howard Taylor.
A quartet of accomplished challengers will start to the inside of Atlanta in the Miami Valley Distaff. Custom Cantab (who is to be driven by Peter Wrenn) was a winner of 13 of 17 starts in 2018, including the Matron Stakes at Dover Downs, and earned over half a million dollars for trainer Chris Beaver. Atlanta’s three other scheduled foes have each won three races already this season. Weslynn Dancer (Matt Kakaley) recently triumphed in the Open Trot at Yonkers Raceway, while Churita (Trace Tetrick) is three-for-three at Hoosier Park to open her year and is closing in on the million-dollar mark in career purse earnings. Red Rose Swan (LeWayne Miller) already has three wins and four place finishes from seven trips to post this year. One of Red Rose Swan’s seasonal victories came in Miami Valley’s Dr. Dan Farwick Memorial Series championship.
Shartin N, pictured in victory.
Shartin N is the defending champion of the Sam ‘Chip’ Noble III Memorial. She captured the 2018 edition in 1:49.3, which is still the fastest mile by a distaff pacer in the six-year history of Miami Valley. Co-owner Tim Tetrick will be in the bike for partners Richard Poillucci and JoAnn Looney-King, the wife of trainer Jim King Jr. The six-year-old New Zealand-bred mare won 19 of 24 races last season, including virtually every marquee event that her division had to offer. The reigning Breeders Crown champion and runner up to McWicked for U.S. Horse of the Year has won four of her five races this season, each of which came in the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series at Yonkers Raceway, including the $402,600 final. Her lifetime bounty has reached $1,393,853.
Shartin N’s main competition is likely to come from Baron Remy (Chris Page), who captured the $275,000 Ohio Sires Stakes championship at Scioto Downs as well as the Courageous Lady at Northfield Park in her 2018 sophomore season. Shartin N’s stablemate, Bettor Joy N (Trace Tetrick), who finished second in the Blue Chip finale, will also pose a threat. Additionally, $918,093-winning Medusa (Gingras) and Always Giggling (Brett Miller) also loom as formidable foes.
The Noble Memorial pays homage to the memory of one of Ohio’s finest-ever horsemen, Chip Noble, from nearby Xenia, who passed away shortly before Miami Valley Raceway opened its doors in 2014.
(With files from Miami Valley Raceway)