Columbus, OH – Surreal Ideal took advantage of some Open Pace competition being elsewhere on Saturday (June 7) to take the $26,000 event in 1:48, the fastest mile of the 2025 Eldorado Scioto Downs meet thus far.
Luke Hanners tucked Surreal Ideal in fourth leaving from post four, as Martins Millions (Trevor Smith) shot off the car to the :25.3 opening quarter. Smith hit the half in :53 with most of the field pulling to the outside, starting with pocket sitter Brookview Bullet (Sam Widger). After failing to advance the outer flow, Surreal Ideal was forced 4-wide by the 1:20.1 third quarter.
Using the momentum off the turn, Surreal Ideal came home in :27 to win by 2-1/2 lengths over Martins Millions; Binge On Yankee was third.
Surreal Idea, owned by 518 Group and Gitup Racing and trained by Vernon Beachy, is a 7-year-old gelded son of So Surreal. The win was his 31st in 110 lifetime starts; he now has $415,518 in earnings.
Through the first four weeks of racing action at Scioto, Virgil Morgan, Jr. leads the way with 36 seasonal training victories; Ron Burke sits second with Steve Carter in third. On the driving side, Dan Noble still has the lead with 74 victories in 276 starts; Chris Page is sitting a close second with Brett Miller sitting in third.
Leading up to the 16-race card on Tuesday (June 10), is a 14-race qualifying card on Monday (June 9). Due to the increase in qualifiers, the first nine of which are for 2-year-olds, first post is 11 a.m.. As always, there will be free program pages available on the Scioto Downs website and qualifiers will be shown live on Racetrack Television Network (RTN).
The 90-day 2025 Eldorado Scioto Downs race meet runs through Saturday, September 13. Races are held Tuesday-Saturday with a 5:45 p.m. first post. Special holiday first posts will be 4 p.m. on June 19th, 3:15 p.m. on Thursday, July 4th and 6:45 p.m. on Friday, September 12 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.