Leona's Reward goes for Bricker Memorial five-peat

Mainstays of the Ohio circuit and newcomers to the stakes scene will each take their turn in the spotlight Saturday in a pair of Ohio-accredited stakes co-featured on the eight-race card at Mahoning Valley.

Leona’s Reward and True Cinder, who have won 21 stakes between them, highlight the $75,000 Bobbie Bricker Memorial Handicap, for fillies and mares going a mile on dirt. One race later, 2-year-olds contest the $75,000 Joshua Radosevich Memorial, a six-furlong sprint.

True Cinder, drawn on the rail for owner-trainer Mike Rone, and Leona’s Reward, in post 8 for breeder, co-owner, and trainer Tim Hamm, bookend the field for the Bricker Memorial.

Leona’s Reward, the 8-5 morning-line favorite, is approaching millionaire status, with $996,806 in career earnings. The 7-year-old mare’s 14 career stakes wins and 11 stakes placings include four consecutive wins in the Bricker Memorial, as well as the 2019 Best of Ohio Distaff. However, the 2019 edition of the Bricker Memorial marks her most recent victory. She is winless in six starts this year, although with four stakes placings in that span.

True Cinder has won seven stakes and placed in 10 others in her career. The 6-year-old mare won her first two starts of this season in allowance company at Mahoning Valley. However, after an eight-month layoff, she finished eighth in the Scarlet and Gray Handicap in October in her most recent outing.

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The field also includes 2020 stakes winners Grizabella, Edge of Night, and Ting Tang. The veteran Grizabella is the two-time defending winner of the Miss Southern Ohio Stakes and is a longtime rival to Leona’s Reward. She finished third in the 2017 Bricker Memorial, and second in both the 2018 and 2019 editions. She also was third in last year’s Best of Ohio Distaff. Edge of Night won the Glacial Princess Stakes and Emerald Necklace Stakes last year as a juvenile and continued on this year to win the Ohio Debutante. Ting Tang won this year’s Cincinnatian Stakes.

Mobil Lady won the 2018 Glacial Princess as a juvenile and is multiple stakes-placed since then.

After sending out stable stalwart Leona’s Reward, Hamm will have a strong chance in the Radosevich Memorial with First Song, one of the few juveniles in the field with a prior stakes placing. After winning his debut, the gelding was third in the Loyalty Stakes behind Happy as You Go and Weekend Buzz. Happy as You Go is one of the leading juvenile fillies in the state, as she went on to win the Emerald Necklace and finish second in the Glacial Princess.

First Song emerged from the Loyalty to win an allowance race going this six-furlong trip at Mahoning Valley, overcoming an awkward start to show a different dimension by rallying from off the pace. Weekend Buzz, who he again faces in the Radosevich Memorial, was third.