Il Mago crushes foes; New handle record set

Trotters were featured on the Sunday Valentine's Day matinee at Miami Valley Raceway amid persistent snow flurries throughout the majority of the harness racing program. Il Mago, a class act with over a half million dollars in earnings, dominated a $14,000 top conditioned event with a gate-to-wire 1:56.2 score for driver Trace Tetrick. Now two-for-two since coming to Ohio, the seven-year-old son of Kadabra has earned his way into the open ranks for the remainder of the meet,, where a showdown with Dayton track record holder Penn will be highly anticipated. CC Racing LLC owns Il Mago, who was an easy open-lengths victor over Cimeronken (Kyle Ater) and Seven Points Jesse (John DeLong).

A co-featured $12,000 condition trot had a decidedly different finish as the photo finish camera couldn't separate Dancing Dynamite (LeWayne Miller) and Revenue Agent (Andy Shetler), who dead-heated for win in 1:57.2. Dancing Dynamite is a five-year-old Explosive Matter mare with eight wins in 70 lifetime starts; while Revenue Agent is an eight-year-old Revenue S gelding with 18 wins in just 50 career starts, good for $220,330 in overall bounty.

Favored Rehab Mountain cut all the early fractions, but faded when a pack of hard-charging closers charged through the stretch. Dancing Dynamite returned $6.60 to her $2 backers, but Revenue Agent was overlooked by the wagering public and kicked back $29.20 to far fewer supporters.

On Saturday night (February 13) Miami Valley established a new record handle when $398,638 was bet on the 14-race program.

Gregg Keidel