Best of Ohio brings out a slew of hard-knocking warriors

Former Ohio-bred Horses of the Year Mo Dont No and Altissimo are making their annual appearances on the season-ending Best of Ohio showcase card. The two Buckeye State stalwarts are among several former Best of Ohio winners on the program, which returns to Mahoning Valley on Saturday.

The 10-race card includes five $100,000 stakes for Ohio-bred runners in various divisions, and the presence of several familiar names has not scared anyone off. The five stakes have an average field size of 11.6 runners.

Millionaire Mo Dont No and defending race winner Forewarned top the field for the Best of Ohio Endurance, the nightcap on the program. They are the only entrants in the overflow field to have previously won at this 1 1/4-mile distance.

Mo Dont No has 10 stakes victories and nine stakes placings in a career that began in 2014. He won the Endurance in 2016, 2017, and 2018 before finishing second to Forewarned in 2019. Last year, Mo Dont No, a stakes winner sprinting against open company, opted for the Best of Ohio Sprint and finished second to Chief Randel. This year, current trainer Gary Johnson has Mo Dont No back at his best game. In eight 1 1/4-mile starts he has six wins and has finished second twice.

Grade 3-placed Forewarned followed up his 2019 Endurance win with a second straight victory in the race last year. He is winless in 10 starts this year while making most of his starts outside of his birth state and in open company for trainer Uriah St. Lewis, including a Grade 1 stakes in New York.

:: Join DRF Bets and play the races with a $250 First Deposit Bonus. Click to learn more.

Grade 3-placed Altissimo is back for the Best of Ohio Sprint, which he won in 2018 and 2019 before finishing an uninvolved ninth last year. He has rebounded to show good form in 2021, winning three of five outings while approaching millionaire status for Richard Zielinski, with $954,204 in earnings entering Saturday’s program.

Altissimo is also a 10-time stakes winner, with seven additional placings, and his versatility has served him well throughout an accomplished career. The gelding has shown the ability both to control a race from the outset, or to rally from off the pace.

Like Forewarned, Chief Randel is winless since his Best of Ohio victory last fall, but he has been stakes-placed in Ohio while running mainly outside of Ohio for St. Lewis.

The two former winners face perhaps the strongest lineup of the day, as the Sprint field also includes two former winners of the Best of Ohio Juvenile – 2018 winner Diamond Dust and 2019 winner Liberate. Diamond Dust won a pair of stakes in 2019 and was third in that year’s Sprint. He comes into this year’s renewal off a pair of allowance victories. Liberate has not won a stakes since taking the Juvenile two years ago.

Morestride finished second in last year’s Juvenile and won the Howard B. Noonan Stakes earlier this season over defending 2020 Ohio Horse of the Year Esplanande.

The defending Best of Ohio Distaff winner, Drillit, also returns, seeking a third Best of Ohio win for Robert Gorham. She also won the 2018 John W. Galbreath Memorial for 2-year-old fillies.

Drillit is winless in five starts this year, but does have two stakes placings. Multiple stakes winner Circus Rings, third in last year’s Distaff, is another familiar face on the program.

Sally Strong is looking to break through in a big way in the Distaff. The filly won three straight races to open 2021 before finishing second to Circus Rings in the Pay the Man Stakes, her stakes debut for Mike Rone. She has since won an allowance race.

There appears to be a lack of committed speed in the Distaff, and Sally Strong, who prefers to be forwardly placed, could take that initiative.

There are few horses with stakes experience in the Juvenile and its filly counterpart, the Galbreath, allowing room for new statebred stars to emerge.

Thedayofthegrey is the only prior stakes winner in the Juvenile and comes in off victories in the Cleveland Kindergarten and te Loyalty Stakes for Robert Cline. A hint at the form of the Loyalty could be seen early on the card, as a pair of also-rans, Chocolate Rabbit and Venture On, are entered in the day’s first race, a maiden special weight.

Christmas comes to the Galbreath having won the Tah Dah Stakes, and heads a three-pronged entry for prominent Ohio trainer and breeder Tim Hamm and his breeding and ownership partner WinStar Farm.

Candlelight Hours was second in both the Tah Dah and the Miss Ohio, while Flatter Her Again was third in the Miss Ohio.