Miami Valley: Ruthless Hanover tabbed as early favorite in $100K Pace Baby Pace

The $100,000 “Pace Baby Pace” Free-For-All by Invitation has been drawn and Ruthless Hanover has been named the lukewarm morning-line favorite. The Saturday (May 6) feature race field has won a combined 238 races and earned $7,595,543 in purses. Seven of the nine horses have sub 1:50 race records while four have won faster than 1:48.

Ruthless Hanover (George Napolitano Jr.) drew the No. 4 post position and will open at odds of 5-2. He has won his only two starts this season in Opens at Harrah’s Philadelphia. Idealsomemagic A (Trace Tetrick) is a close 3-1 on the morning-line, having won eight races already this year including three preliminary legs of the prestigious Borgata Series at Yonkers recently.

Local favorite Let It Ride N (Dan Noble) is 7-2 on the merits of seven wins at Miami Valley in 2023 including five Opens in a row in March and April. Lou’s Pearlman (Chris Page), the 2021 Little Brown Jug winner, will open at 9-2 on the heels of a 1:50 win in a $24,500 Open at The Meadowlands last Saturday.

This Is The Plan (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.), a $3 million winner, should get plenty of consideration off a win in the final Borgata preliminary and fourth-place finish after cutting the mile in the $511,000 final. Little Rocket Man (John DeLong), a prolific winner of 42 out of 78 lifetime starts, drew the outside post position and is listed at 8-1.

Chase H. Hanover (Tony Hall) is 10-1 from the rail, Hemsworth N (Brett Miller), winner of the Borgata Consolation, is 12-1, and Bernie (Kurt Sugg), who has finished one-two in Northfield Park’s Open his last eight outings is 15-1.

The race is a memorial tribute to Pacey “The Wizard” Mindlin, Miami Valley’s on-air handicapper until his death at age 81 in March.

The final race card of the Miami Valley season will start at noon on Saturday. It includes eight $55,000 divisions of first leg action in the Ohio Sires Stakes. Estimated post time for the “Pace Baby Pace” Invitational is 4 p.m.

-edited release (Miami Valley)