from Scioto Downs Racino

Columbus, OH — Scioto Downs Racino starts hosting Ohio State Fair races on Thursday (Aug. 1), with the 2-year-old pacing fillies and the 2- and 3-year old trotting fillies.

The only field of 3-year-old filly trotters will have 11 in it and will go for a $60,000 purse in race six.

Even though she is leaving from post 11, Contessa Leigh and driver Chip Noble are going into the race as the 8-5 morning line favorite. The Marty Wollam trainee comes into the race having won her last three starts. Her lifetime best of 1:56.4 was taken on July 6 at Scioto, when she won the latest Sire Stakes by two lengths.

Diplomats Mistress is the second favorite at 7-2, leaving from post two, for trainer Mike Sowers and driver David Myers. She most recently finished second at a fair in Piketon, after making a break before the start. Before that she won three races in a row — the other division of the Sire Stakes on July 6 and then two fair starts, Wellston and Washington Court House. Her regular driver, Myers, is only two wins away from 1,000 career driving victories.

The 2-year-old trotting fillies will face off in two separate divisions, with the first having nine starters going for $34,450 in race one and a second set of eight going for $33,750 in race three. Two divisions of seven 2-year-old pacing fillies will go for $30,000 each in races two and seven. Chris Page is set to drive three of the favorites in these four races.

In The Grippers will go off as the 2-1 trotting favorite in the first race for leading trainer Virgil Morgan, Jr. The filly by relatively unknown sire Steven One has won her first two career starts, both in Sire Stakes events, for owner Herres Stables LLC. She won in 2:04 at Scioto on July 4 and again at Northfield 15 days later in 2:03.1.

The favorite in the second division of 2-year-old filly trotters is Rose Run Princess who, when she won just under a month ago, gave trainer Devan Miller her first training win in a Sire Stakes race. She won that race in 2:02.4 and then came back to win the second sire stakes event at Northfield in 2:02.2.

Page is also down to drive the favorite in the first division for 2-year-old filly pacers when he sits behind Steve Carter’s Spiffy Sam (5-2). The filly by Nobleland Sam has seven starts this year with three wins, two seconds and a third. She took her 1:57.4 record at Northfield on July 28; she then won a fair race at Eaton four days ago in 2:07.

The only 2-year-old favorite Page is not driving is Paydaze On The Way (2-1), who will have Dan Noble in the sulky. Diana Riegle trains the filly with two starts and one win and one second. This filly is by the older sire, Look Sharp, who first stood stud in 1988 and is now 30 years old. The filly was second in her first Sire Stakes event, going in 1:57.3 and finishing just a neck behind winner Crown Time Keeper, who will race in the same division as Paydaze On The Way this week. She then beat Crown Time Keeper in the next Sire Stakes event when she won by 1-1/4 lengths in 1:56. Steve Carter has enlisted Chris Page to drive Crown Time Keeper, whose morning line is set at 5-2.

Racing will continue Friday, with a post of 6:30 p.m., Saturday, with an afternoon 1 p.m. post and a special Sunday 5 p.m. card.