Lebanon, OH — McSeaside, the 2022 Ohio Sires Stakes champion who banked $295,614 through her 2-year-old season, passed the first major test of her sophomore season with a 1:51.4 win in the $50,000 James K. Hackett Memorial for 3-year-old pacing fillies at Miami Valley on Tuesday (April 25).

Driver Chris Page elected not to press forward off the gate, deciding instead to take a seat along the pylons in seventh during the early going. It wasn’t until aggressive leaver Cruise Alert (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) had completed the popular “give and go” maneuver just past the :27.4 first quarter and neared the halfway juncture in :56.2 that McSeaside moved fourth-over. After moving up steadily and pushing three-wide at the 1:24 three-quarters station, Page found a clear path in the middle of the lane with McSeaside and paced strongly to the wire to defeat Cruise Alert. A hard-charging Kassagi (Sam Widger) finished third.

McSeaside charged down the grandstand side to win the James K. Hackett Memorial for 3-year-old pacing fillies. Conrad photo.

McSeaside, dispatched at 6-5 odds, is owned by Burke Racing in partnership with Beasty, J&T Silva and Knox Services Stables. The Ron Burke Brigade has now swept the first two of four $50,000 Hackett Memorial finals. In addition to McSeaside’s impressive win in the filly pace, Rose Run Yanae captured the filly trot division a day earlier. Burke will attempt to complete a Hackett grand slam when he sends John Dutton into the colt trot on Wednesday (April 26) and a powerful quartet of finalists into the $50,000 test for pacing colts on Thursday (April 27).

Post time on both Wednesday and Thursday is 4 p.m. as Miami Valley completes the penultimate week of its 2023 live racing season.