by Kimberly Rinker, OSDF Administrator

Columbus, OH — Sixteen sophomore pacing colts are set to line up behind the Scioto Downs starting gate in a pair of $50,000 Ohio Sires Stakes contests on Saturday night (June 9).

First race post time is 6:30 p.m. (EDT), with the two OSS events scheduled as race five (7:50 p.m.) and race 10 (9:30 p.m.) in round two of the four-leg series.

OSS combatants include leg one winners Bounding Dragon and Rockn Motion, who’ll square off in the first division.

Conrad photo

Bounding Dragon romped to victory in 1:53 in Ohio Sirs Stakes action on May 6 at Miami Valley Raceway.

Hailing from the Mike Roth stable, Bounding Dragon prevailed impressively in 1:53 in his first OSS test on May 6 at Miami Valley. The Dragon Again colt, who is owned by Alan Keith and Carl and Melanie Atley, then sped to a 1:50.4 clocking in a Hoosier Park overnight on May 25, making him one of two of the fastest colts in this division (the other is Cinnamack, who was fourth in OSS leg one, but who also won in 1:50.4 in an identical event at that same Indiana raceway). Bounding Dragon, a winner of $116,159 lifetime and $44,750 this season, has drawn the rail and is reunited with his regular driver, Josh Sutton.

Rocknmotion, a son of Pet Rock conditioned by Kimberly Dailey, won his first OSS test with an extraordinary three-wide move around the final turn to notch the victory by three-quarters of a length over $227,355-earner Seeing Eye Single (also in this same division) in 1:51.4. Ron Mersky owns and bred the bay colt, who has $40,425 in career earnings from four wins and a second in nine lifetimes starts. He was unraced as a freshman.

In the second division, Slick Mick and Rockathon face off after both finished third in leg one.

Rockathon will be harnessed by Kimberly Dailey, who owns the gelded son of Pet Rock with Carl and Melanie Atley. This winner of $161,012 lifetime recorded a mark of 1:51.3 in his Scarlet & Gray triumph on April 28 at Miami Valley and has $41,050 in his coffers this season. Rockathon gets Danny Noble in the sulky once more.

Slick Mick is conditioned by Brian Brown for Milton Leeman and has $22,500 in earnings this season with a pair of wins in four starts. Lifetime, he’s amassed $92,748, with a 1:51.4 record taken at Scioto Downs on May 24. He’s drawn the rail for driver Ryan Stahl.

Ohio Sires Stakes action continues on Monday evening (June 11) at Northfield Park, when 3-year-old trotting fillies line up behind the starting gate in leg two action.