Columbus, OH — The Dan Patch 2024 Older Female Pacer of the Year, Grace Hill, won her first start of 2024 at Eldorado Scioto Downs on Friday (May 17). Leaving from their assigned post eight, Tony Hall sent Grace Hill straight to the top and won the $27,000 fillies and mares open pace by three-quarters of a length in 1:50.3.

Grace Hill kicked off her 2024 campaign with a bang on Friday at Eldorado Scioto Downs. Brad Conrad Photo.

Trained by Virgil Morgan, Jr., Grace Hill set opening fractions of :26.3, :55, and 1:22.1. Coming home in :28.2, the 6-year-old daughter of Always B Miki, held off stablemate Alexa Skye (Dan Noble), who finished second, and a hard-charging Scorecard Dandy (Sam Widger) who was third. Grace Hill, owned by Tom Hill, earned $573,526 and took her 1:47.4 lifetime mark at Woodbine in 2023 on her way to divisional Dan Patch honors. She qualified three times before making her seasonal debut at Scioto.

Also on the Friday evening card was the $26,000 Open Trot, won by Spitfire Oversees (Brett Miller) in 1:53.2. The 4-year-old ridgling by International Moni is trained by Stacey Van Huizen for Thestable Spitfireovrsees. He now has four wins in his last seven starts and $91,750 earned in his 14 seasonal starts in 2024. Scorecard Dan (Sam Widger) finished second and Wildfire Seelster (Jeremy Smith) was third.

Scioto’s weekend action continues Saturday (May 18) with 16 races on tap and a first post time of 5:45 p.m. There is a $4,595 carryover for the $.20 Super High-5 starting in race four. Free program pages are available on the Scioto Downs website https://www.caesars.com/scioto-downs/racing/racing-info/race-programs.

The $27,000 open pace headliner has last week’s runner up, Little Rocket Man, posted as the 2/1 morning line favorite, even while having the outside post nine. The meet’s leading driver, Jeremy Smith, will once again sit behind the Ken Rucker trainee. Catch track announcer Barry Vicroy’s interview with Smith on the Scioto pre-card show starting at 5:30 p.m.

The 90-day 2024 Eldorado Scioto Downs race meet runs through Saturday, September 14. Races are held Tuesday-Saturday, with special holiday cards on Memorial Day and Labor Day taking place instead of the Tuesday card that week. First post is at 5:45 p.m. each day except for Thursday, July 4^th with a post of 3:15 p.m. and Friday, September 13 which will have a 6:15 p.m. post to help accommodate horsemen attending the Ohio Selected Yearling Sale. More information about racing at Scioto can be found on the Eldorado Scioto Downs website.