Columbus, MN — The elimination races for the 2022 Ron Banks Memorial FFA Pace will highlight Sunday’s (Aug. 7) nine-race program at Running Aces.

The event is for fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up. There are two elimination splits, each going for $17,500. The top four finishers in each elimination, as well as the fastest fifth place finisher, will advance to the $35,000 final on Sunday (Aug. 14).

There were 15 nominations to this year’s Banks event, and 14 have entered the eliminations.

Headlining the starters will be Hottieonthehorizon (Luke Plano, 2-1) who has won six of ten local starts this year in the top Mares Open ranks for trainer Rick Lancaster. She drew post six in the first elimination split (race six), and will take on recent Running Aces invader Graceful Horizon (Dean Magee, 5-2). Graceful Horizon drew post two for trainer Jessica Johnson and will be making her second local start.

The pair are both daughters of Vertical Horizon and were separated by just a head at the wire on July 21 after battling nose to nose for the final half-mile, with Graceful Horizon prevailing in 1:53.

The second elimination split (race seven) is Headlined by Rockin With Lou (Dean Magee, 2-1) who drew post three and comes into the event off a dominating 8-1/2 length romp in a conditioned pace on Thursday night (Aug. 4) in 1:53.1 with Magee in the bike. The sharp daughter of Sweet Lou has won 11 of 22 races this year for owner/trainer Gerald Longo.

Second choice on the morning line is east coast invader Bettor Trix N (Luke Plano, 5-2), a daughter of Bettor’s Delight who is making her first local start for trainer Jessica Johnson. She had been racing in Maryland and Delaware and has a seasonal mark of 1:52.4 at Rosecroft Raceway.

The 20-cent Pick-5 Jackpot wager has a carryover of $6,192.91 and will start in race five, while the 50-cent Late Pick-4 has a guaranteed total pool of $3,000 and gets underway in race six. Post time at Running Aces is 7 p.m. (CDT).