In Ohio, weekend spotlight is on statebreds

While the eyes of the racing world are on Churchill Downs on Saturday, there will also be stakes action a bit north across the Ohio River. Both Belterra Park in Cincinnati and Thistledown, further north in North Randall, card statebred stakes action on their own live cards while hosting Kentucky Derby simulcasts and festivities.

Just as in Kentucky, 3-year-olds will be in the spotlight on Saturday at Belterra Park, as Diamond Dust, the best 3-year-old male in the state, figures to be a heavy favorite in the $75,000 Tall Stack Stakes.

Diamond Dust, a Paynter gelding who races as a homebred for trainer Tim Hamm’s Blazing Meadows Farm and WinStar Farm, sports a career mark of 5-2-0 from seven starts with three stakes wins. He concluded his 2018 campaign with a victory in the Juvenile Stakes on the Best of Ohio program last October. He is perfect in two starts this season, winning an allowance race and then taking the Howard B. Noonan Stakes at Mahoning Valley.

True Cinder and Leona’s Reward have finished one-two in the last two editions of Thistledown’s $75,000 Dr. T.F. Classen Memorial Stakes, with True Cinder winning in 2017 and Leona’s Reward winning last year. They square off yet again in Saturday’s renewal of the sprint for Ohio-accredited fillies and mares.

Between them, Leona’s Reward and True Cinder have won 16 stakes, placed in 14 others, and have earned more than $1 million.