Northfield, OH — When Daniel Jones thinks he has the best horse in the race he knows to put him on the front-end and that’s exactly what Jones did in the Great Lakes Amateur Diving Association’s series trot at Northfield Park on Sunday (Sept. 6).

With his charge, The Next Triumph, starting from the two-hole and being sent away at odds of 3-10, Jones put the pedal to the metal and gunned the 7-year-old gelding trotter to the front and refused to relinquish the lead despite a hard challenge from William Rhoades’ Impressive Chief.

At the quarter-mile marker Impressive Chief got first call but unfortunately for him it would be the last one he’d get in the race as Jones played hard-ball and regained command.

The Next Triumph was en route to just that as the altered son of Triumphant Caviar turned back all comers and trotted by the half in :57.2 and still had a three-quarter length lead on his competitors as the three-quarter timer flashed 1:27.

After Jones headed for home he was glad that Northfield has a short homestretch and The Next Triumph fought gamely all the way to the wire and held off a hard-charging A Royal Line and driver Larry Ferrari to notch a neck triumph in the speedy 1:57 mile.

It marked the fifth seasonal victory for the aptly named The Next Triumph who is co-owned by Robert Smolko and his trainer, Ron Steck. Faithful backers received a a $2.60 win payoff.