Columbus, MN — Despite heavy rains and strong storms throughout the day on Sunday (July 28) in the north-metro Minnesota area, the card at Running Aces went to post as scheduled, and delivered some very exciting contests and close finishes over the track rated sloppy.

One of the most impressive winning efforts of the night came from Fox Valley Nemitz ($22.00, Brian Detgen), who picked up his fourth win in 12 outings this season with a resilient first-over mile in 1:52.3 in the featured $14,000 Open Handicap Pace for horses and geldings.

Starting from post four in the seven horse affair, Fox Valley Nemitz floated away in sixth position and sat through the initial fast quarter (:26.3) but was quickly out and moving first-up just after that juncture, and began to apply pressure to leader and race favorite Holdingallthecards (Dean Magee).

Bettor’s Promise (Mooney Svendsen) was sitting in the pocket and Top Notch (Rick Magee) was well spotted with the outside cover from Fox Valley Nemitz as they made their way around the far turn.

Fox Valley Nemitz turned up the pressure as they turned for home and Holdingallthecards folded his hand and relented, while Top Notch was raging with pace and tipped wide. Fox Valley Nemitz continued to pace strong to the wire and fought hard to deny Top Notch the victory, keeping his rival at bay by a half-length on the line.

The winner is a 5-year-old son of Richess Hanover, owned by Susan Holm-Johansen, and trained by Ulf Holm-Johansen. He now has 16 career wins and $140,002 in the bank.

MD Magic ($5.00, Nick Roland) picked up his third straight win in the $16,000 Minnesota-Sired 3-year-old trot, with a sharp effort from post eight in 2:00.2 over Dewey’s Machine (Steve Wiseman) for his fifth win of the year for owner Set The Pace Racing and trainer Nick Roland. MD Magic now has career earnings of $112,860.

Pridecrest is back on top of the trotting colony at Running Aces after a sharp looking win in the $15,000 Open Handicap Trot on Sunday. The classy 7-year-old veteran by Angus Hall pulled the upset win with an outside trip throughout. Driver Steve Wiseman kept Pridecrest in the outer flow and covered up before tipping three-wide into the final turn and delivering heavy pressure to leader Banker Volo (Tim Maier).

Pridecrest took the lead at the head of the lane but immediately faced a strong late challenge from Winning Lyric (Dean Magee) for an exciting stretch battle, with Pridecrest ($34.00) prevailing by a neck on the line in 1:56. The winning owner is Christopher Schick, and the winning trainer is Kathie Plested-Wiseman.

Nick Roland had a big night on Sunday, piloting a total of five winners on the card, while Steve Wiseman drove three winners and trainer Kathie Plested-Wiseman sent out the same three winners.

Live racing returns to Running Aces on Tuesday night (July 30) with local post time at 7 p.m. The 20-cent Pick-5 jackpot now stands at $3,547.90.