Lebanon, OH – Charlie May opened his sophomore season in style by winning an elimination heat of the James K. Hackett Memorial late closer in 1:51.4, despite a rain-soaked sloppy racing surface.

Brett Miller surged the defending Ohio Sires Stakes champion past Heart Of Chewbacca (Dan Noble) in the final strides in the highly anticipated early season showdown between the two best Ohio-sired 2-year-olds in 2020. Official Bean (Trevor Smith), who prepped with a pair of early season wins at Miami Valley, finished third.

Charlie May had a freshman scorecard of 9-7-2-0, good for $328,627 in earnings. Heart Of Chewbacca was nearly as impressive in his rookie racing season, compiling a 7-5-2-0 stat line and pushing $195,598 into his owners coffers.

Neither horse left the gate with alacrity, but both were moved into the outer flow before the :57.1 halfway point in the mile.  Heart Of Chewbacca was first to reach the front after a :26.2 third panel before Charlie May finally collared him nearing the finish line. The same scenario played out in the $300,000 OSS championship tilt at Eldorado Scioto Downs last September.  Steve Carter trains homebred Charlie May for owner Don Tiger.

Laughagain Hanover opened his sophomore season with a 1:52.1 score in an elimination of the James K. Hackett Memorial at Miami Valley. Conrad Photo.

The other Hackett Memorial elimination heat went just two-fifths of a second slower as Laughagain Hanover (Noble), who finished third in the aforementioned Buckeye freshman final, easily defeated Just Playing (Josh Sutton) and Third Edition (Miller). It was the fifth lifetime triumph for Laughagain Hanover and raised his earnings to $120,984 for the partnership of Cimaglio, Richardson and Gilmartin.  Noble’s wife Christi trains the son of McArdle.

Joining the first three finishers in the eliminations will be fourth-place finishers Siri Said (Mitch Cushing) and JW’s Chrome (Kayne Kauffman). There was a tie for the fastest fifth place finish with both Imagine It (Sutton) and Just Marvelous (Trevor Smith) posting identical 1:54.1 clockings. If all 10 horses enter, there will be a coin flip between the fifth-place finishers to determine who makes the nine-horse field for the $40,000 final.

In a $22,500 Open I Pace, Gold Digger King notched his second straight Saturday feature race victory, topping The First Step (Chris Page) and Americanfirewater (Kauffman) in 1:52. Linda Van Camp owns and Scott Mogan trains the 5-year-old son of Pet Rock who now sports 14 career wins and $280,387 in earnings.

Omega Cat (Tyler Smith) nosed out Yacht Week (Kauffman) and Grantmeawish (Sutton) in the $20,000 Open II. When Smith reached the wire in 1:51.3 it gave him his 100th win of the year at Miami Valley, a day after he reached the $100,000 seasonal earnings plateau.

Racing resumes with 2:05 p.m. 14-race matinees on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at Miami Valley.