from Miami Valley Raceway

Lebanon, OH — The race office at Miami Valley Raceway will open for the first time on Thursday morning (Jan. 30) from 8 a.m. until 12 noon and again Friday morning from 8 a.m. until 10 a.m.

The first order of business will be accepting entries for the first-ever qualifying races over the brand new five-eighths-mile oval. They will be contested on Saturday (Feb. 1) starting at 12 noon.

Phone numbers for the race office are 513.934.7336, 513.934.7337 and 513.934.7339.

“We know that the prolonged arctic weather in southeast Ohio over the past month has been the worst in a quarter century,” said Race Secretary Gregg Keidel. “Trainers are having a very difficult time maintaining the schedules they laid out in anticipation of our opening. Accordingly, we’ve relaxed the qualifying standards temporarily to get as many horses back to the races as we can as soon as possible.”

Opening weekend is slated for Friday through Sunday (Feb. 7-9) with a 6:30 p.m. post time each night.

Trainers within shipping distance of Miami Valley are urged to check out the condition sheets for the first three nights, available at both www.ustrotting.com under the Horsemen tab and at www.miamivalleygaming.com under the Racing tab. Horses will be required to show a good clean charted line within 45 days of their anticipated race.

“We may be able to direct trainers who want to race horses two or three nights on opening weekend and are shipping from longer distances to affordable nearby overnight stabling. We are talking to the county fairgrounds in both Lebanon and Dayton about offering overnight rates to trainers who pre-pay with a deposit,” Keidel reported.

Hall of Famer Dave Palone, the winningest driver in North American harness racing history with more than 16,000 victories, has accepted an invitation to race opening weekend at Miami Valley Raceway.

Over a dozen other drivers with more than 1,000 wins have announced their intentions to compete regularly. In order of lifetime triumphs they are Jim Pantaleano (6,251), Greg Grismore (6,181), Randy Tharps (4,618), Tony Hall (4,013), Dan Noble (3,511), Pat Berry (3,024), Jack Dailey (2,679), Jeff Nisonger (2,644), Josh Sutton (2,220), Kayne Kauffman (1,653), Ronnie Wrenn Jr. (1,325), J.D. Wengerd (1,318), Tyler Smith (1,227) and Mark Winters Jr. (1,056).