Ohio horse of the year honorees Esplanande, Altissimo, and Mo Dont No will face fellow statebred champions in their respective races on a competitive Friday card at Belterra Park, as the track hosts five $100,000 Best of Ohio stakes for statebreds. Esplanande, the most recent winner of the state’s top honor, is the only 3-year-old in the Diana Stakes for fillies and mares going six furlongs, the finale on the eight-race card. The Daredevil filly was bred by trainer Tim Hamm’s Blazing Meadows Farm and WinStar Farm, and races for those entities in partnership with Michael Lewis. After winning her first three starts in her native Ohio, including the Hoover Stakes and the Cleveland Kindergarten against statebred males, she shipped to Saratoga and finished second in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes to eventual Eclipse Award champion Vequist. :: Bet the races with confidence on DRF Bets. You're one click away from the only top-rated betting platform fully integrated with exclusive data, analysis, and expert picks. Esplanande returned off a layoff of more than six months to finish second in the Southern Park Stakes to Tivis and second in the Howard B. Noonan Stakes to Morestride this season. She got back in the win column in an April 28 allowance race at Thistledown, leading throughout and widening down the stretch to win by 13 1/4 lengths. Santiago Gonzalez was aboard the filly for the first time in that win, and and keeps the mount Friday. The duo is drawn on the rail, an ideal spot for her to flaunt her early speed in the six-furlong contest. The second choice to Esplanande on the Diana morning line is five-time stakes winner Drillit, winner of the 2018 John W. Galbreath Memorial Stakes and the 2020 Best of Ohio Distaff. The Robert Gorham trainee was second in a Thistledown allowance earlier this month to start the season. The 11-horse field for the Diana has drawn six other stakes winners, led by Circus Rings, last year’s champion handicap mare in Ohio; Star Mabee, who was honored as the state’s outstanding claimer; and 2019 champion 3-year-old filly Totally Obsessed. Valley of Mo’ara has won four straight races, and rounding out the stakes winners are Cali Dream and Edge of Night. Altissimo, Ohio’s 2018 and 2019 horse of the year, faces Chief Randel, who snatched the champion sprinter title from him in 2020, and 2019 champion 2-year-old male Liberate in the Babst/Palacios Memorial for 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs. However, all three face a strong challenger in Buckeye Bullet, a slight morning-line favorite over Altissimo off a victory in the Michael F. Rowland Memorial Handicap to start this season. It was his fourth victory in that race. Nine-time stakes winner Altissimo won the Best of Ohio Sprint in both 2018 and 2019. Last fall, however, he finished ninth in his defense of that victory, as Chief Randel won the race with Mo Dont No second and Buckeye Bullet third. Altissimo is making his first start since finishing third in the Cardinal Handicap last November behind It’s Official, whom he also faces here. Altissimo is trained by Richard Zielinski. The versatile Mo Dont No, the state’s horse of the year in 2016 and 2017, seeks his first stakes victory on turf in the Sydney Gendelman Stakes, a race that includes another two-time Ohio champion in Mobil Solution. Mo Dont No has won 10 stakes, at distances ranging from six furlongs to 1 1/4 miles. He won the Best of Ohio Endurance in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Mo Dont No is an allowance winner on the turf and was second in the 2017 Gendelman. Forewarned, winner of the 2019 and 2020 Endurance, returns to his home state after finishing eighth in the Grade 3 Pimlico Special two weeks ago. The card also includes a pair of 1 1/16-mile stakes for 3-year-olds, the Green Carpet Stakes on the turf and the Norm Barron Queen City Oaks for fillies. Both races have drawn the top three finishers from the 2-year-old races on last fall’s Best of Ohio card. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances - the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures Buckeye Magic, Morestride, and Uptown swept the trifecta in the Juvenile on the Best of Ohio program. Buckeye Magic, who was subsequently named the state’s champion 2-year-old male, finished second by a neck to Big Truck in an allowance race to start his season. Big Truck also returns here. Meanwhile, Morestride most recently finished second in the Tall Stack Stakes. The first and third finishers from that race, Brig and Henry Mac, also return. Alexandria, Shez Shacked Up, and Ballroom Blitz meet again after finishing first, second, and third in the Galbreath Memorial for fillies last fall. The Queen City Oaks also includes Tivis, who bested Esplanande this spring in the Southern Park.