Dayton: Donttellmeagain looks to rise up in Pacing Derby

There may be one horse missing from the lineup this Friday at Hollywood Dayton Raceway but the field of nine going in the $150,000 Dayton Pacing Derby won’t be missing Lazarus when they go behind the gate. Trainer Jim King Jr. is hoping his Donttellmeagain can regain winning form.

“I thought he raced great in the Hoosier (Pacing Derby) race, we were just too far back and there was no pace,” King said. “Lazarus was able to get away with soft fractions.”

Indeed King more than believes with a reasonable cover flow his 4-year-old by Dragon Again could have gotten the job done a week ago.

Donttellmeagain, owned by Paton Racing Stable, the husband and wife team of former New York circuit trainers Wendy (nee Daigneault) and Jon Paton, has gotten stronger as the season has gone on and King gives more than a share of the credit to the Paton’s who have helped manage his career.

“They mapped out his 2-year-old season and had him racing in the Stallion Series,” said King, noting that the couple didn’t want to stress the horse. “Anytime something bothered the horse we would just back off.”

The conservative approach continued as a sophomore with King and the Patons managing to make the most of a 14-race season with eight victories good for $169,738 in earnings.

As a 4-year-old in 2018, King has been able to build his horse’s confidence and bank account simultaneously. Making just his 13th start on Friday, Donttellmeagain has made $293,851 already and there’s more on the plate.

“He’s just gotten stronger over the year. Early on we just wanted him to be competitive against the 4-year-olds but he’s continued to improve,” said King. “It’s not easy racing against solid aged horses like McWicked but he’s getting there.

On Friday Donttellmeagain has a chance to define his season from post three with regular driver Tim Tetrick in the bike. McWicked drew post eight and last year’s Breeders Crown champion Split The House drew post nine for the Pacing Derby, making it somewhat of a handicap.

While the Lazarus connections hoped to supplement to the Pacing Derby, the fact that nine eligibles declared for the race on Monday left the lauded import out of action in Dayton on Friday.

Of the nine, trainer Ron Burke sends out a pair in the $3 million winner All Bets Off (post one) and the $1.5 million earner Rockin Ron (post 6). All Bets Off has struggled to find his form this year but a move to the inside of the gate could give driver Matt Kakaley a few more options than he’s had. Last week All Bets Off got away ninth from the outside in the slowly paced Hoosier Pacing Derby and finished in the same position.

Rockin Ron has finished first or second in half of his 20 starts this year.

Another potential sleeper in the field would be Beckhams Z Tam, last year’s surprise Breeders Crown sophomore champion. The son of Always A Virgin drew post two and that figures to give him an excellent chance. He won the Prix D’Ete in August with a similar draw.

Brian Sears will guide McWicked, who has been one of the most dominant older pacers this year but is generally a closing threat.

Completing the field is Western Fame (post four), Missile J (post five) and Bit Of A Legend (post seven).

The Pacing Derby shares the Friday night spotlight with a companion race for older trotters. Will Take Charge was installed as the slight 5-2 morning line choice from post six against Homicide Hunter (post four) and Ariana G (post two).

King revealed that Shartin will race in Lexington and he expects to supplement the leading aged pacing mare to the Breeders Crown at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono. “I spoke to Moira (Fanning from the Hambletonian Society) about it today,” said King. “It costs $31,000 but if we supplement this year we can just nominate her next year and she’ll be eligible.”

King admits that buying horses from down under has never been more difficult. “They used to say that every horse they were selling was better than Bit Of A Legend N. Now they say they are all better than Shartin,” said King, who expects the highly regarded Duplicated, a son of Somebeachsomewhere, to arrive shortly and be ready for action in a month or so. “Hopefully he’s good enough to go in the Levy,” said King.