Miami Valley: Favored colts strong in Scarlet & Gray Invitationals

Most of Ohio's finest 3-year-old colts and geldings were showcased at Miami Valley on Saturday (April 24) in a pair of $50,000 Scarlet & Gray Invitationals.

In the trot, Winning Ticket (Aaron Merriman) ran his win streak to three with a convincing 1:54 1/5 victory over stablemate Panzano (Dan Noble) and Lockbox (Chris Page). Winning Ticket and Merriman made every call a winning one, leading through fractions of 28, 58, and 1:26 4/5 before closing in 27 2/5 to win in-hand by over two lengths.

A winner of an elimination and the $40,000 final of the recent James K. Hackett Memorial at Miami Valley, the son of Triumphant Caviar now has seven wins in 11 lifetime starts and his bounty has grown to $147,547. His sophomore season has started with three triumphs in three tries, earning $52,500 in purses.

Winning Ticket is co-owned by trainer Chris Beaver in partnership with Steve Zeehandelar, Tim Homan, and Jim Burnett.

In the pacing division, heavily-favored Heart Of Chewbacca (Noble) was dominant, as expected. The son of Bring On The Beach lowered his personal-best time to 1:51 with a 4 1/2 length win over Laughagain Hanover (Page) and Hardt At Work (Mike Micallef). Noble never experienced an anxious moment in the mile, and Heart Of Chewbacca required little, if any, urging through the stretch. Dennis Owens and Noble's Norman Rae Racing LLC. own the winner, who now sports seven career victories, including two in 2021, and has earned $244,348.

The next start for both Scarlet & Gray winners is expected to be first leg Ohio Sires Stakes action at Miami Valley on Monday, May 3 - closing day for the 2021 86-day season.

--press release (Miami Valley)--