Sixteen sophomore pacing colts are set to line up behind the Scioto Downs starting gate in a pair of $50,000 Ohio Sires Stakes dashes this Saturday evening (June 9).
First-race post time will be at 6:30 p.m. (ET), and the two sires stakes events have been carded as Race 5 (approximate post time 7:50 p.m.) and Race 10 (9:30 p.m.) during what will be Round 2 of the four-leg series.
Sires stakes combatants include Leg 1 winners Bounding Dragon and Rockn Motion, who’ll square off in the first division (Race 5). Hailing from the Mike Roth stable, Bounding Dragon prevailed impressively in 1:53 in his first sires stakes test on May 6 at Miami Valley.
The Dragon Again colt — who is owned by the Ohio partnership of Alan Keith of Johnstown and Carl & Melanie Atley of Xenia, then sped to a 1:50.4 clocking in a Hoosier Park overnight on May 25 — which made him one of the two fastest colts in the division (the other is Cinnamack, who was fourth in Leg 1 of the sires stakes, but who also won in 1:50.4 in an identical event at that same Indiana raceway).
Bounding Dragon, a winner of $116,159 lifetime and $44,750 this season, has drawn the rail and is reunited with his regular driver, Josh Sutton, Saturday.
RocknMotion, a son of Pet Rock conditioned by Kimberly Dailey, won his first sires stakes test with an extraordinary three-wide move around the final turn to notch the victory by three-quarters of a length over $227,3355-earner Seeing Eye Single (also in this same division) in 1:51.4. Ron Mersky of Paris, KY owns and bred the bay colt, who has $40,425 in career earnings from four wins and a second in nine lifetimes starts. He was unraced as a freshman.
In the second division (Race 10), Slick Mick and Rockathon will face off — both having finished third in Leg 1. Rockathon will be harnessed by Kimberly Dailey, who owns the gelded son of Pet Rock with Carl & Melanie Atley of Xenia. The winner of $161,012 lifetime recorded a mark of 1:51.3 in his Scarlet & Gray triumph on April 28 at Miami Valley and has $41,050 in his coffers this season.
Slick Mick is conditioned by Brian Brown for Milton Leeman of Columbus, OH and has $22,500 thus far in earnings this season with a pair of wins in four starts. Lifetime, he’s amassed $92,748, with a 1:51.4 record taken at Scioto Downs on May 24. He’s drawn the rail for driver Ryan Stahl, while Rockathon gets Danny Noble in the sulky once more.
Ohio Sires Stakes action continues on Monday evening, June 11 at Northfield Park, when three-year-old trotting fillies will line up behind the starting gate in Leg 2 action.
(OSDF)