Columbus, OH – Driver Sam Widger earned his 8,000th career victory as he drove veteran pacer Saying Grace N to a front-stepping victory in a $5,500 starter allowance/optional claimer at Eldorado Scioto Downs on Tuesday (May 12).
Widger needed a pair of wins to hit the milestone and set to work immediately, winning the opening race with Born To Run As ($35.40) in a 16-1 upset. That Mark Headworth trainee won an early battle for the front, fended off a first-over challenge through the middle half, and dug in late to a quarter-length victory in 1:54.
The reinsman then reached 8,000 wins in the sixth race as he put Saying Grace N ($2.80) on the lead entering the second turn and got him home a quarter-length winner in 1:53.3 for owner-trainer Adam Short. He was greeted in the winner’s circle with a placard commemorating the achievement.
Widger won another race later on the card and now sits on 8,001 wins from 60,268 starts. The driver made his debut in 1986 and has booked earnings of more than $77 million since then. The 63-year-old raced mainly on the Chicago circuit early in his career before relocating to Indiana, and more recently to Ohio. His best dash-winning season was in 2008, when he won 461 races, and he set a career-high in earnings in 2023 with $4.4 million.