Harrah's Hoosier Park: Ocean Rock rules in Pacing Derby

Ocean Rock came through with his first victory outside of Ohio at an opportune time, as he was a 1:49 victor in Friday night's $182,000 Harrah's Hoosier Park Pacing Derby for free-for-allers.

Driven by Chris Page for the first time, Ocean Rock blasted out from post four and wrestled the lead away from Workin Ona Mystery (Tim Tetrick) just after the 26 2/5 opening quarter. From there, Ocean Rock was unchallenged to the 54 4/5 half.

The complexion of the race changed past the half entirely, though, as Workin Ona Mystery, who was under urging in the backstretch, came to a walk and backed up the horses on the inside lane, including 9-5 favorite This Is The Plan (Yannick Gingras). That also allowed all the horses in the outer tier, led by Catch The Fire (Scott Zeron), to settle back down to the pylons before Ocean Rock hit three-quarters in 1:22 3/5.

In the lane Catch The Fire had dead-aim at Ocean Rock two-wide and tried to mount a bid, but it was to no avail, as Ocean Rock had plenty left and went on to tally by 2 1/2 lengths. Catch The Fire had to settle for second, and Little Rocket Man (John De Long) was the third-place finisher.

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Christi Noble trains Ocean Rock, a 4-year-old Rockin Amadeus gelding, for owner/breeder Sandra Burnett. The winner of the Myron Charna Invitational, the Ohio Sires Stakes Championship for older horses, and the Jim Ewart Memorial in 2021, Ocean Rock has an overall summary of 17-8-1 from 33 career starts, and he has now banked $817,622. The 5-2 second choice, Ocean Rock paid $7.20 to win.