OUTSIDE POSTS DON’T HINDER MIAMI VALLEY FEATURE RACE WINNERS

LEBANON, OH. – A pair of ultra-impressive performances, both by horses starting from the outermost No. 9 post position, highlighted the Saturday (Jan. 25) night action at Miami Valley Raceway. Windsong Leo (Chris Page) ran his win streak to five capturing the $25,000 Open Pace in 1:52 over a sloppy track. The outstanding 8-year-old son of Jereme’s Jet has won three straight at the top level at The Meadows and now two straight at Miami Valley following a third place finish in the Preferred at The Meadowlands to end 2019. Page rushed his odds-on favorite, trained by Ron Burke, off the gate and controlled all the fractions (:27.1, :56 and 1:23.3) enroute to the victory. Windsong Leo, a 53 time winner in 117 career starts, towed Gerardo (Kayne Kauffman), My Hero Ron (Tyler Smith), Shagnwiththedragon (John DeLong) and General Dolan (Trace Tetrick) across the wire. Pet Shark (Sam Widger) copped the $32,500 championship final of the Claim To Fame Series for $20,000 male pacers. After leaving with alacrity from his outside post, Widger and Pet Shark pestered favored Ponderingjacksfame (Page) through fractions of :27.4, :55.4 and 1:24.1. Despite being dispatched at odds of 17-1 and never seeing a pylon in the race, the winning 7-year-old Shadyshark Hanover gelding mustered a gutsy :29.2 final panel to hold off the late charges of Ram N Desire (Smith) and Cool Like That (Brett Miller). Owners Ryan Bellamy and Chris Bulak claimed Pet Shark for $26,000 a week ago in the final preliminary leg of the series and got $16,250 of that investment back in the final. The winner now sports 19 triumphs in his 114 lifetime starts. Racing resumes Sunday afternoon at 2:05 p.m. at Miami Valley when the feature will be the $37,500 championship final of the Claim To Fame Series for $30,000 male pacers.