Dayton, OH – Robert Michael overcame the outside post, a tough trip and cruised to victory in the $18,000 condition claiming trot at Tuesday night (Dec. 16) at Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway.
When the gates wings folded, Luke Hanners had Aunt Lilly on top early with the bettor’s choice, Hilltop Sonar (Chris Page) in the pocket.
They raced past the opening panels in :27.2 and :56.4.
Robert Michael (Trevor Smith), who left from post 9, was parked the entire mile, picking up cover from Jimbaran Zon S (Tyler Smith) in the opening three-eighths.
As they went down the backstretch the final time, Robert Michael was sent three-wide and easily cleared Aunt Lilly just past the three-quarters in 1:25.2.
Page was able to get off the rail in the final turn, but Robert Michael got the jump on Hilltop Sonar and scored the 2-1/4 length win.
A closing Massive Desire (Brett Miller) nosed out Hilltop Sonar for third.
Jason Irwin trains the winner for Robert Weinstein.
The homebred son of Crazy Wow established a new lifetime mark with the 1:53.3 mile.
In the $13,000 conditioned pace, driver Cam McCown picked up one of his three winners on the night thanks to a gate-to-wire effort from Vel Beach Babe.
The sophomore daughter of Straight Shooting won a three-way battle for the early lead and controlled the early fractions of :28.3 and :58.4.
Top Shelf Sherry (Luke Hanners) was able to flush Eleanor’s Knight (James Yoder) and challenged the leader at the three-quarters in 1:26.3.
Vel Beach Babe used a :28.1 final panel to seal the deal and hand Top Shelf Sherry a ¾ length defeat in a new lifetime best 1:54.4. Eleanor’s Knight held on for third.
Nathan Alexander conditions the winner for the A I R Stable.
The winner returned $41 to his backers.
Driver Chris Page recorded a grand slam during the 14-race card.
Racing resumes on Wednesday (Dec. 17) with their standard 4 p,m. post time. Free past performance pages are available at hollywooddaytonraceway.com.