from Hollywood Dayton Raceway

Dayton, OH — Hollywood Dayton Raceway closed the curtain on a successful second season on Wednesday night (Dec. 30) with an overall average nightly handle increase of 20 percent over the inaugural 2014 session. More than $5.2 million in purses were paid out over the 75-night meet.

Conrad photo

Top driver and trainer awards were presented on closing night to Josh Sutton (third from right) and Jeff Brewer (second from right). Congratulating the winners were (left to right) Brett Merkle and Renee Mancino of the OHHA, Penn National Ohio Vice President of Racing Mark Loewe and Hollywood Dayton Race Secretary Gregg Keidel.

Josh Sutton successfully defended his 2014 driver’s dash title by winning 116 races and earning nearly $600,000 in purse money. At age 33, Sutton has won 3,288 races in his career and is nearing $20 million in purse earnings. He currently ranks seventh in the national dash standings, one of four Ohio-based drivers in the top 10.

Kayne Kauffman also cracked the 100 win barrier to finish second with Dan Noble, Chris Page and Jeremy Smith rounding out the top five.

Trainer Jeff Brewer garnered his first Hollywood Dayton trainer’s title, harnessing 46 winners with stable earnings of almost $200,000 for the meet. The 56-year-old Brewer has sent a total of 1,675 horses to the winner’s circle in a productive career that also includes training titles at Hoosier Park, Indiana Downs, Lebanon Raceway and Thunder Ridge. Horses in his care have earned just under $8 million over the years.

The remainder of the top five were Virgil Morgan Jr., Kayne Kauffman, Chris Short and Sam Coven. An astounding total of 440 trainers made at least one start during the 3-1/2 month Hollywood Dayton season.

New track records were established on both the pace and trot. State Treasurer (David Miller) copped the $138,500 Dayton Pacing Derby in 1:48.4, the fastest mile ever at Dayton, while Penn (Josh Sutton) lowered the square-gait standard to 1:52.3 in a December open event.

Hollywood Dayton Raceway put an exclamation point on its successful second season with another all-time record handle, $366,773, on the final program of the year–eclipsing the old record established a week earlier of $357,603.