Columbus, OH — Little Rocket Man “rocketed” to the lead late in the stretch to win the $27,000 open pace on Saturday (May 18) at Eldorado Scioto Downs in 1:49.4.

Little Rocket Man rocked the house at Scioto, winning the feature in impressive fashion. Conrad Photo.

Getting away fifth from the nine-hole, driver Jeremy Smith was content to sit in while Artatac A (Dan Noble) set early fractions of 27.1 and 56. Just before the half Smith angled Little Rocket Man second over after Makin Some Noise (Tony Hall) and the field boogied through a 26.2 third quarter to trip the beam in 1:22.3. Little Rocket Man went three-wide mid-way through the last turn and posted a 26.3 last quarter to win by three and three-quarter lengths over Makin Some Noise, with Artatac A holding on for third.

In five seasonal starts, Little Rocket Man has earned $50,250, pushing his lifetime earnings to $445,150. The 8-year-old gelded son of Rockin Image is owned by Russell Beeman and Jack Freeman and trained by Ken Rucker.

The Saturday card boasted quite a few carryovers for handicappers, including into the early Pick-3 and the first Super Hi-5 of the evening from the Friday card. Within the card, there were three instant carryovers and there is a small carryover for the early Pick-5 on Tuesday, starting in race one. Free program pages for each live racing day are available on the Scioto Downs website.

The first two cards of Scioto’s third week of the 2024 season have been drawn, with each day continuing to have 16 races. The only races with less than 9 horses in them are the three splits for the second leg of the $13,000 John Konesky III trot for non-winners of one fillies.

“Our box continues to be oversubscribed,” said Jason Roth, Scioto’s Director of Racing. “We’re averaging 247 horses in the box each day and we’re filling more races for trotters than ever before, including the non-winners of six (straight and conditioned claimer) and non-winners of 10 conditioned claimer, that have historically never filled, plus we’ve had enough higher end horses to fill an open trot, a fillies and mares open trot, an open II, non-winners $14,000 last four and the non-winners of $10,500 over these two weeks.”

The 90-day 2024 Eldorado Scioto Downs race meet runs through Saturday, September 14. Races are held Tuesday-Saturday, with special holiday cards on Memorial Day and Labor Day taking place instead of the Tuesday card that week. First post is at 5:45 p.m. each day except for Thursday, July 4th with a post of 3:15 p.m. and Friday, September 13 which will have a 6:15 p.m. post 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.