$50,000 Hackett Filly final to McSeaside

LEBANON, OH – McSeaside (Downbytheseaside), the defending Ohio Sires Stakes champion following a freshman season when she banked $295,614, passed her first major test in her sophomore harness racing season winning the $50,000 James K. Hackett Memorial for 3-year-old pacing fillies at Miami Valley on Tuesday (April 25).

Driver Chris Page elected not to press forward off the gate, deciding instead to take a seat along the pylons in seventh during the early going.  It wasn’t until aggressive leaver Cruise Alert (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) had completed the popular “give and go” maneuver just past the :27.4 first quarter was recorded and neared the halfway juncture in :56.2 that McSeaside moved to the outer flow in fourth over position.

Moving up steadily, including a three-wide move at the 1:24 three quarters station, Page found a clear path in the middle of the lane and paced strongly to the wire in 1:51.4.  Cruise Alert held for second and a hard charging Kassagi (Sam Widger) was the show finisher.

McSeaside, dispatched at 6-5 odds, is owned by Burke Racing in partnership with the Beasty, J&T Silva and Knox Services Stables.

MCSEASIDE REPLAY

The Ron Burke Brigade has now swept the first two of four $50,000 Hackett Memorial finals being staged this week.  In addition to McSeaside’s impressive win in the filly pace, Rose Run Yanae (Triumphant Caviar) captured the filly trot division a day earlier.  Burke will attempt to complete a Hackett Grand Slam when he sends John Dutton into the trotting colts fray on Wednesday (April 26) and a powerful quartet of finalists into the $50,000 test for pacing colts on Thursday (April 27).

Post times on both Wednesday and Thursday is 4 p.m. as Miami Valley completes the penultimate week of the 2023 live racing season.

For complete race results, click here.

From Miami Valley Raceway