Major upset in $135,000 Jim Ewart Memorial

It was a cavalry charge down the stretch at Scioto Downs Saturday night in the $135,000 Jim Ewart Memorial Invitational Pace and once the dust settle it was 18-1 long shot Ocean Rock and driver Dan Noble grabbing the victory.

The 14^th race feature started off with This Is The Plan (Chris Page) quickly to the lead and they stretched out a determined Gold Digger King (Brett Miller) to the opening quarter mile in a speedy :25.2. Meanwhile, Workin Ona Mystery (Ronnie Wrenn, Jr.) was also on the outside and wanted the lead.

But Gold Digger King was not letting Workin Ona Mystery get by him as Little Rocket Man (John DeLong) grabbed the second-over cover to the half mile in :52.3.

As the field entered the backstretch, DeLong sent Little Rocket Man three-wide trying to loop Workin Ona Mystery and then four-wide was Nicholas Beach (Joe Bongiorno) with Ocean Rock following his cover to the three-quarters in 1:20.1.

Around the final turn Nicholas Beach was able to clear to become first-over and collared Gold Digger King as Ocean Rock was three-wide. Then in the stretch, This Is The Plan snuck through along the rail, Nicholas Beach was still game, but the gamest of all was Ocean Rock and Dan Noble as they came charging to the wire to win by a half length in 1:49.1 to pull off the big upset.

OCEAN ROCK REPLAY

Nicholas Beach held for second place with Sectionline Bigry (Tyler Smith) grabbing third.

It was the second straight win and fifth of the season for Ocean Rock. The four-year-old gelded son of Rockin Amadeus is trained by Christi Noble for owner/breeder Sandra Burnett of Wilmington, Ohio and paid a whopping $39.60 to win.

“I had to take him back off the gate at the start,” Noble said. “And things just got crazy from there. There was a lot of early speed and things just worked out great from there.”

For full race results, click here.

By Steve Wolf, for Harnesslink