by Thom Pye, for OHHA

London, OH — When Patricia Sweeney’s 3-year-old filly A Oliveinmymartini won the $4,838 Ohio Fair Racing Conference (OFRC) contest on Saturday (July 7) she was returning to the scene of one of her many triumphs from last year. It was the Mike Sweeney-conditioned daughter of Three Olive’s first start of 2018 and she toured the London oval just as handily as she had in 2017. This time she stepped off a mile of 2:00.2 and put a feather in driver Jeff Nisonger’s cap as they paced a quarter in :30 seconds flat. It was the seventh win in nine Ohio Fair starts.

Ambitious Lillian took a liking to the local oval as well when the Bruce Farquhar-trained youngster by Big Bad John and Jeff Nisonger took a new lifetime mark of 2:04.3 in the $9,810 OFRC 2-year-old filly pace with a 29 last panel.

It wasn’t a cake walk for Black Magic Racing LLC’s Pet Walker, but the 3-year-old Pet Rock-Miss Walker filly did both her trainer Greg Luther and driver Ken Holliday proud when she paced to victory in 2:01 over Grant Me This (Beau Brown) and Rei’s Honor Roll (Jeff Nisonger). She pushed her earnings to over $40,000 in nine 2018 starts. She has a lifetime mark of 1:52 at Miami Valley taken just a month ago as well.

The Ohio Ladies Pace Series proved another battle and when the dust settled, Cassimir Oppee and Mandy Jones came from off the pace to capture the honors in 2:02 with a last quarter of :29.2. Emily Hay with Milliondollarart was second as Rhonda Patrick and Lyons Gingerninja took third.

The Racing With The Stars competition again had seven enthusiastic participants as they were paired in the $3,365 OFRC division for seven 3-year-old filly trotters. Bugs MVP, Chris Beaver’s multiple stake winning lass by My MVP, kept her form again for Cameron McCown as she added her 10th victory in 21 lifetime starts and cruised home easily in 2:04 over Momentsoffire (Ryan Holton) and Man The Keg with Scott Altizer.