from Hollywood Gaming Dayton Raceway

Dayton, OH — Celebrity Hercules, a well-traveled 8-year-old son of Kadabra, visited Hollywood Dayton Raceway for the first time on Saturday night (Dec. 20) and left with a hard-fought nose victory in the weekly $10,000 Open Trot.

Conrad photo

Celebrity Hercules posted a narrow 1:55.3 victory over Mystical Dew in Saturday’s $10,000 Open Trot at Hollywood Dayton Raceway.

With the narrow victory Celebrity Hercules inched closer to the half-million dollar earnings plateau. He now has 37 lifetime wins in 141 tries and has amassed $492,399 in winnings. The winner has won multiple races in Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota in recent years and now adds Ohio to his list of places where he has beat the best.

This victory did not come easy, however, as Celebrity Hercules got away seventh in the nine-horse field for driver Dan Noble, then moved into position third in the outer flow during the middle half-mile.

At the three-quarters, Noble flipped his charge three-wide and he eventually ground down Mystical Dew (Tyler Smith), who had raced first-over from the outside post position the entire mile, in the final stride.

Favored Rehab Mountain (Brad Hanners) put the field through relatively comfortable fractions of :27, :57 and 1:26 before yielding in deep stretch and finishing third in the 1:55.3 mile.

Jim Ellison trains Celebrity Hercules for the Dandy Farms Inc.