LEBANON, OH – No one was surprised that a Chris Beaver trainee captured the $40,000 championship final of the James K. Hackett Memorial for Ohio-sired three-year-old trotting fillies on Monday afternoon (April 15) at Miami Valley Raceway. Many, however, were shocked at which of the five Beaver fillies in the field prevailed.
Pure Chance (Jason Thompson), off at 17-1 odds, left with alacrity and easily made the front before letting heavily-favored stablemate Bella’s Rose Power (Aaron Merriman) rush to the lead just before tripping the first quarter beam in :28.4. Thompson and the daughter of Triumphant Caviar were quite content to sit in the pocket second for the next half mile, watching the teletimers flash :57.3 and 1:26, before finding room at the head of the stretch to squeeze out and power to a 1:55.1 score. Well I’m Fancy (Chris Page), a 59-1 longshot from the Ron Burke Stable, found a seam in deep stretch to rally for runnerup laurels while Aunt Rose (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.), another Beaver trainee, was third. With odds-on favorite Bella’s Rose Power fading to fifth, mutuel payoffs soared. Pure Chance paid $37.20 to win, the exacta returned a whopping $1037.60, and a $2 trifecta ticket was worth $3082.00.
Steve Zeehandelar is trainer Beaver’s partner on Pure Chance, whose young career has now produced three wins in ten tries, good for $97,246 in earnings.
The state-bred sophomore trotting colts will take center stage during the Tuesday (April 16) matinee at Miami Valley when the $40,000 Hackett Memorial final for that division will take place as Race 6. First race post time is 2:05 p.m.

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