Scioto: Noble in the driver's seat for Ohio Championships

Driver Dan Noble will be a busy man on the richest program in the history of Ohio racing. The 35-year-old will have a front-row seat in five of the eight $275,000 Ohio Sire Stakes finals for 2- and 3-year-olds and will be at the controls behind Nuclear Dragon in the $250,000 Jim Ewart Memorial on Saturday night at Scioto Downs.

Coming into the draw for the eight finals, Noble’s best chance of victory on paper came with co-point leader Rose Run Ulysses in the 2-year-old pacing colt division. To some extent that changed when the son of Western Vintage drew on the outside of the gate in post eight, but Noble has far from lost hope.

“If he is 100% I think the can overcome the post. He is definitely one of the better ones,” said Noble.

[DRF HARNESS LIVE: Watch the races LIVE and join Garnet Barnsdale as he provides real-time updates on the Scioto Saturday card.]

Rose Run Ulysses is the fastest 2-year-old on a half-mile track in 2018 courtesy of a 1:52 win at Northfield Park in his last start. He has won four of five starts this year for trainer Kimberly Dailey and Noble wouldn’t be surprised if he went on to bigger and better things eventually.

“I think he is that good of a colt if he matures and becomes more manageable,” said Noble on his chances of reaching the Grand Circuit.

Noble is again stuck in post eight for the 3-year-old filly pacing championship, but despite Bad Girls Rule’s 1 for 16 record this year, he sees no reason why she can’t repeat her championship performance over this track as a rookie.

“We started off a little soft with her early in the year and unfortunately her main trainer Jim Dailey passed. I just think there were some hard things going on with his passing and now they’ve pulled the horse and given it to Virgil (Morgan),” said Noble. “I really liked her in the overnight last week.”

Noble was handed another bad post in the 3-year-old filly trotting final with Non Smoker, a horse he trains as well as drives. The daughter of My MVP has had an up and down year according to the driver/trainer.

“That filly is a little tough. You just don’t know what day she is on. She has her good and bad days just like anybody else. I usually know more once she warms up,” said Noble, who added that she is having a good week so far.

MVP Luke gives Noble the chance to see the inside of the gate as the 3-year-old trotting colt leaves from post two in his $275,000 final. While he has just 2 wins in 16 starts on the year, the driver thinks there may be more in the tank.

“We haven’t really raced that colt hard all year. We’ve been very patient and we got lucky we had enough points to make the final,” said Noble. “I think he is one of the fresher colts and he has every right to be in the top three.”

The Sire Stakes finals, which run from races two through nine with a special $10,000 Guaranteed Pick 8 pool, concludes with the 3-year-old colt final where Noble and Bounding Dragon will take a second shot at North America Cup winner Lather Up. The pair hooked up in a mile-long battle on August 4 at Scioto where despite getting parked the entire way, Lather Up prevailed by 1-3/4 lengths.

“They wanted to see if we could beat Lather Up that start,” said Noble on why he refused to yield to Lather Up that night. “Now I know the horse a bit better having driven him to this point. He can go a long way, he’s just not quick-footed.”

Bounding Dragon has posted an impressive 11-6-4-0 record while earning $130,100 in 2018 for trainer Mike Roth. He’ll start just to the inside of the 9-for-11 Lather Up in post four on Saturday.

“I really think I can beat him because we raced him fairly easy in his last start,” said Noble about his chances this time around against Lather Up. “I’m sure my horse will be in rare form.”

The Grand Circuit feature on the program is the $250,000 Jim Ewart Memorial (race 12) where Noble will send out the red-hot Nuclear Dragon from the second tier in post 10. The 6-year-old gelding has won three straight including a 1:48 3/5 score at Scioto since moving into the Noble barn in mid August.

“He won last week in (1:)48 and change under wraps and he came out of the race well and trained great today (Wednesday). I’m hoping for a really good performance out of him,” said Noble. “We may supplement the horse to the Dayton Pacing Derby as well, so we wanted to know if we can go with them.”

Featuring over $2.5 million in purse money, the Scioto Downs Saturday card kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with the first of 14 races.