Lebanon, OH — The Bethinator, despite being the youngest mare in the field, won the $22,500 Mares Open Pace on Friday (Jan. 22) at Miami Valley Raceway. It was the 4-year-old daughter of Somebeachsomewhere’s fourth win at the top level in her last six tries on the Miami Valley-Hollywood Dayton circuit.
Driver Tyler Smith set sail early and was determined to dictate all the fractions with the razor-sharp odds-on favorite. The outcome was never really in doubt, as The Bethinator coasted through the mile in fractions of :27.3, :55.4, 1:23.3 and 1:51.4. Although all nine of her challengers had career earnings over $200,000, she has just reached $147,309 for the Megan Rogers Racing Stable. The Bethinator is trained by Nelson Willis.
Sharing the Friday spotlight were a pair of lucrative Claim To Fame series finals. The finalists in the $20,000 claiming split for mares chased a purse of $30,000, while the male $12,500 claimers went for $25,000.
Malnificent (Trace Tetrick) proved her faithful right when she fronted the distaff field in 1:52.4 and returned a $3.00 win mutuel. Owned by Ira and Brian Wallach Racing and trained by Tyler George, the winner bested Duck Duck Dragon (Chris Page) and M E Radar Girl (Tyler Smith).
J M Jet Set (Dan Noble) got the best of an evenly matched field of hopefuls in the male division, winning in 1:53 over Franzo (Sam Widger) and Armabluechipboy N (Kayne Kauffman). All nine finalists had won a heat of the series in the past two weeks. Noble’s wife, Christi, conditions and owns the 11-year-old winner, who now sports 40 career wins and over $400,000 in lifetime bounty.