Fan-less Opens held at Miami Valley

LEBANON, OH. – Gold Digger King (Brett Miller) was crowned harness racing champion of the George Williams Memorial Series at Miami Valley on Saturday night (March 14), even though there was no one there to watch the $27,500 final live.

Racing was conducted in front of an empty grandstand, due to a shutdown caused by the Coronavirus crisis, but was exciting nonetheless and enjoyed by numerous new off-track fans as evidenced by a higher-than-normal handle.

Miller, the leading dash driver at the current Miami Valley meet, was intent on dictating the fractions as the 1-2 favorite in the Williams Memorial. It took Gold Digger King most of the intial :27 quarter to gain control, then the 4-year-old son of Pet Rock put up middle fractions of :55.1 and 1:23 over the rain dampened sloppy track.

A final :29 split was enough to hold off Diesel Accelerator (Kyle Ater), who sat a pocket trip throughout, and the lengthy first-over bid of Dashing To Da Wire (Dan Noble). The 1:52 triumph was the seventh of the Scott Mogan trainee's young career and increased his career bounty to $171,097. Linda Van Camp owns Gold Digger King, who paid $3 to win. The exacta paid $11 and the 'chalky' 50-cent trifecta returned just $9.05.

A contentious $24,000 Open Pace earlier on the card was captured by My Hero Ron (Tyler Smith), who was a head better than fast-closing Hallie's Comet (Jeremy Smith) and just a length better than Gerardo (Kayne Kauffman) who made all the pace in the race before tiring to a third place finish in the 1:52.3 mile. My Hero Ron is now just one win away from millionaire status as the victory lifted his overall bounty to $990,663. The 8-year-old Well Said gelding has amassed 36 wins from 167 starts and owns a 1:49.2 record taken five seasons ago.

Dan Dubeansky trains 'Hero' for owner Brian Witt.

Miami Valley will continue live racing, with no live fans, on Sunday afternoon at 2:05 p.m. Those wishing to watch and/or wager on the races can go to the website: https://miamivalleygaming.com/racing/ where they can find links to either TwinSpires.com or TVG.com advance deposit wagering platforms and also find a link to enable downloading of the program pages courtesy of the U.S.T.A.

From Miami Valley Raceway