by Miami Valley Raceway

Lebanon, OH — Pass The Vape passed his first major test of his sophomore season on Tuesday afternoon (April 17) capturing the $40,000 championship leg of the first-ever James K. Hackett Memorial for Ohio-sired 3-year-old colt trotters. Started in 1971 at Lebanon Raceway, the Hackett Memorials have featured the Buckeye state’s best juvenile pacers for 4-1/2 decades, but the trotters weren’t added until 2018 by Miami Valley Raceway.

Holton photo

Pass The Vape trots home in 1:55.1 to capture the championship leg of the James K. Hackett Memorial.

Driver/trainer Derek Watiker popped the pocket at the head of the lane to trot home a 1:55.1 winner in his $15,000 Hackett elimination a week ago, but decided to take no prisoners in the final. Leaving strongly from the 7-hole, the son of Dejarmbro encountered only limited resistance while cutting modest fractions en route to a 1:57.3 triumph.

Pass The Vape held favored Sultan Of Cash (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.), the other elimination winner, at bay by 1-1/2 lengths to score his fourth career win in just six lifetime starts. In his two wins as a 2-year-old, both at Ohio county fairs, the excitable colt overcame breaks in stride to still win.

The next big test for Pass The Vape will be in the $50,000 Scarlet & Gray Invitational at Miami Valley on Saturday (April 28). Sultan Of Cash and third place finisher Sand Cash (Chris Page) also stamped themselves automatic invitations to Miami Valley’s newest innovation.

There will be four lucrative Scarlet & Gray contests sandwiched between Grand Circuit action and the first leg of the Ohio Sires Stakes season on Miami Valley’s closing weekend.