Cody Hanover much the best in Tharps Memorial

LEBANON, OH – It was a very proud moment for Andre Nared, the harness racing trainer of Cody Hanover, who captured the $35,000 Tom Tharps Memorial Series in a lifetime best 1:51 mile on Sunday (April 3) at Miami Valley.

“I’ve aimed this horse for this race ever since I saw the advertisement for it months ago,” Nared said. “Tom Tharps is my grandpa and I admired him a lot. I probably wouldn’t be in the horse business if it wasn’t for him.”

Nared has had much success with Cody Hanover, since he started training him for owner Lionel Watiker early this year. In six starts under Nared’s tutelage, the 5-year-old son of Dragon Again has now recorded four wins and two seconds good for 2022 earnings of $55,000.

On this occasion, regular driver Dan Noble decided to gun the winner directly from the seven-hole start to the lead. He set moderate first half fractions of :27.3 and :56.3, then turned on the jets in the second half of :56 to hold all challengers at bay in 1:51. JK Going West (Trace Tetrick) put in a mild bid to finish second, while No Free Lunch (Tyler Smith) rode the pylons the entire way to earn the third place payday.

Cody Hanover paid $8.80 to win; while the exacta returned $34.60 to those who combined the two favorites.

CODY HANOVER REPLAY

A final pair of preliminary divisions of the Omar Hiteman Memorial Series were also presented on Sunday to determine the finalists for the $25,000 championship next week.

Winners were heavy favorites EL’s Rocket (Mike Peterson, $2.80) and Big Fritz (Cameron McCown, $4.40). That twosome will be joined by other top money winners in the series: Rockin Sandsave, The Mad King, Seaside Way, Red Camo, Hoosier Hypnotic, DLs Hard Cider, Bettor By Seaside and Some High Dreamer. Due to a tie for ninth place in the final standings, the final will be a ten-horse race if all who qualified enter.

Racing resumes Monday with a 4:05 p.m. post time at Miami Valley.

For full race results, click here.

From Miami Valley Raceway