Dayton, OH — Fearless Ginger used a perfect pocket trip from driver Chris Page and nailed the pacesetting Beautiful Seaside (Trevor Smith) in the final strides to take the $30,000 Fillies and Mares Open Pace Thursday (Nov. 12) at Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway.
Fearless Ginger was the first to the lead, but Beautiful Seaside wanted the top and grabbed the lead before the quarter-mile pole and set fractions of :26.4, :55.1 and 1:22.2.
An early challenge from Shadows Dancers (Tyler Smith) and Alwaysbpuffing IR (David Miller) stalled down the backstretch, setting up a three-way final battle.
Foxy Hill (Luke Hanners), who was sitting third, pulled to the outside of the leader while Page elected to wait for the passing lane.
Fearless Ginger nipped Beautiful Seaside by a neck and Foxy Hill was another half length back for the show spot.
The 5-year-old Fear The Dragon mare is trained by Ron Burke for the Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi.
She paid $20 to win.
In the $26,000 Fillies and Mares Open II Pace, it took a photo finish to separate the top five finishers.
Hey Hey Mama (Luke Hanners) led from the start and relinquished control in the shadow of the wire to the first-up challenger Tr’sshining Star (Brett Miller), who prevailed by a neck in 1:52.3.
There was a dead heat for third between Hey Hey Mama and Flo Jo (Chris Page).
The fifth-place finishing Hungry Lizzo (Jeremy Smith) was charted back just three-quarters of a length.
Heather France trains the 6-year-old Huntsville mare for Todd’s Auto.
A trio of drivers had triples on the card: Chris Page, Jeremy Smith and Brett Miller.
Racing at Dayton Raceway continues on Friday (Nov. 13) with a 14-race card.