Dayton, OH — The recently completed 75-program meet at Hollywood Gaming’s Dayton Raceway was deemed a complete success by Mark Loewe, Penn National’s Vice President of Racing for Ohio.  “We had good competitive racing over a good race surface, resulting in track records on both the pace and trot,” said Loewe. “We featured full fields of horses and deep, talented rosters of drivers and trainers…and our patrons responded. I’d like to thank everyone who played a part for their contribution to the success of our fifth meet.”

The overall track records were lowered in Hollywood Dayton’s signature Grand Circuit events.  Donttellmeagain (Tim Tetrick) captured the $150,000 Dayton Pacing Derby in 1:47,4 while Ariana G (Brian Sears) lowered the trot standard to 1:52.1 in the Dayton Trotting Derby.  Other new divisional records were established by 3-year-old trotting filly Black Mamba (1:55), 3-year old male trotter Pass The Vape (1:54.1), 4-year-old pacing mare Carol’s Z Tam (1:51) and 4-year-old male trotter Optimist Blue Chip (1:53.2, tie with Il Sogno Dream)..

Driver Jeremy Smith won his first Dayton meet dash title by establishing a new record of 154 wins in a meet.  His mounts topped $1 million in purse earnings as well.  Dan Noble and Chris Page tied for second on the list, followed by Josh Sutton, Kayne Kauffman, Tyler Smith, Jason Brewer, Aaron Merriman, Trevor Smith and Kyle Ater in the top ten.

On the training side, Virgil Morgan Jr. captured his third Dayton Raceway title with 45 winners and $335,000 in purse earnings for his stable.  The top ten list also included Jeff Brewer, Dan Maier, Dan Noble, Kayne Kauffman, Ron Burke, Charles Stewart, Dan Ater, Phil Belanger and Larry Finn.

Total purses for the meet exceeded $8.2 million for an average of over $110,000 per program.  

With plentiful horse supply, there was an average of 13.4 races per program with over 8.5 horses starting each contest.  An average of 182 horses per day entered the box, with 88% of those entered online.

Post position 5 again produced the most winners during the season (16.3%), narrowly beating the No. 4 post (15.6%) and the No. 1 starting position (14.3%).  Favorites won 39% of the time and finished on-the-board (top three) 68.5% of the time.

“Now that we’ve completed five successful seasons at Hollywood Dayton, we’ll turn our attention to 2019,” said Race Secretary Gregg Keidel. “The meet will open September 8 and end of December 28 next year, highlighted by the Dayton Pacing and Trotting Derbies on September 27, the Buckeye Stallion Series championships on a special Sunday, September 29 matinee and the Ohio Fair Finals on another added Sunday, October 13.”