Miami Valley: Charlie May, Laughagain Hanover win in 2021 debuts

Charlie May opened his sophomore season on Saturday at Miami Valley Raceway in style by winning an elimination of the James K. Hackett Memorial late closer in 1:51 4/5 despite a rain-soaked sloppy racing surface.

Brett Miller surged the defending Ohio Sires Stakes champion past Heart Of Chewbacca (Dan Noble) in the final strides in the highly-anticipated early-season showdown between the two best Ohio-sired 2-year-olds in 2020. Official Bean (Trevor Smith), who prepped with a pair of early-season wins at Miami Valley, finished third.

Neither horse left the gate with alacrity, but both were moved into the outer flow before the 57 1/5 halfway point in the mile. Heart Of Chewbacca was first to reach the front after a 26 2/5 third panel before Charlie May finally collared him nearing the finish line. The same scenario played out in the $300,000 O.S.S. Championship tilt at Eldorado Scioto Downs last September.

Charlie May had a freshman scorecard of 7-2-0 from nine tries, good for $329,627 in earnings. Heart Of Chewbacca was nearly as impressive in his rookie racing season, compiling a 5-2-0 stat line from seven appearances and pushing $195,598 into his owners' coffers.

Steve Carter trains homebred Charlie May for owner Don Tiger.

The other Hackett Memorial elimination went just two-fifths of a second slower as Laughagain Hanover (Noble), who finished third in the aforementioned Buckeye freshman final, easily defeated Just Playing (Josh Sutton) and Third Edition (Miller).

It was the fifth lifetime triumph for Laughagain Hanover and raised his earnings to $120,584 for the partnership of Cimaglio, Richardson, and Gilmartin. Noble's wife, Christi, trains the son of McArdle.

Joining the first three finishers from the eliminations in the final will be fourth-place finishers Siri Said (Mitch Cushing) and JW's Chrome (Kayne Kauffman). There was a tie for the fastest fifth-place finish, with both Imagine It (Sutton) and Just Marvelous (Trevor Smith) posting identical 1:54 1/5 clockings. If all ten horses enter, there will be a coin flip between the fifth-place finishers to determine who makes the nine-horse field for the $40,000 final.

--press release (Miami Valley)--