Thursday’s Best of Ohio program at Thistledown features five $100,000 statebred stakes that have attracted the two most recent Ohio-bred horse of the year honorees, Generous Lover and Fair and Square. Additional participants will include unbeaten championship contender Silent Rule and statebred champions Candlelight Hours, Diamond Dust, Empire’s Fire, Here’s the Spider, I Wanna Win, and Villian.
The first Best of Ohio program, and the only one with turf racing, was held at Belterra Park in Cincinnati on June 6. Thursday’s program, with 2-year-old racing entering the picture, is one of the biggest cards of the year at Thistledown, in North Randall. A season-capping fall showcase will take place at Mahoning Valley in Youngstown.
Thistledown, which typically races on a Monday-through-Thursday schedule, canceled all four of its live racing days the week of July 21, when riders and horsemen began reporting rocks emerging in the track. Thistledown attempted to resume racing on July 28 but canceled the remainder of that Monday card and, later, the whole week after a horse broke down in the first race. The track superintendent was fired during the process.
Thistledown resumed racing Aug. 4 and ran its full four-day racing week, with eight races each day.
With track conditions hopefully not in the headlines Thursday, the biggest suspense is in which race Silent Rule, unbeaten in nine starts, will run. The filly, trained by Jay Bernardini, was cross-entered in the $100,000 Best of Ohio Honey Jay Stakes, in which she would face males but remain at perhaps her best distance, six furlongs, and the $100,000 Best of Ohio Pay the Man Stakes against females, but at 1 1/8 miles, a distance she has never raced. On Monday morning, Bernardini said in a text that the filly would likely go in the Honey Jay.
With or without Silent Rule, the Pay the Man may have the strongest field on the card, led by reigning statebred horse of the year Generous Lover. She won three stakes last year, including dominating the Pay the Man by 12 1/4 lengths and the fall Best of Ohio Distaff by 26 3/4 lengths.
This season, it looks like Generous Lover has a worthy foe. She chased Silent Rule in the Best of Ohio Diana at six furlongs but could not catch her while finishing a clear second. The two have similar running styles, and Silent Rule going in the Honey Jay would be an advantage for Generous Lover.
Generous Lover finished seventh in the Anchorage on June 29 at Churchill Downs in one of her forays into open company, then bounced back to win the Vivacious Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Belterra. Generous Lover is based at Churchill with Joe Sharp and thus had the advantage of being able to train steadily for her Thursday engagement, as Thistledown’s training options were affected by the track maintenance work.
Candlelight Hours is a six-time stakes winner in her home state. She has earned two state titles, as the outstanding 2-year-old female of 2021 and the outstanding female runner of 2023, when her wins included the Pay the Man and Best of Ohio Distaff. Here’s the Spider also was a champion juvenile in 2023. She was a well-beaten second to Generous Lover in last year’s Distaff and can be forgiven for many of her starts this year against open company.
The Honey Jay would set up a strong litmus test between Silent Rule and the state’s reigning champion sprinter, Empire’s Fire. Although Silent Rule won her only race at 1 1/16 miles, taking the J. William Petro Memorial Stakes, most of her starts have come at six furlongs, including that Diana win over Generous Lover. Although all three of her stakes outings have come against females, she did defeat statebred males in an allowance last year. Like Generous Lover, she has the advantage of not having her training interrupted, as she has been breezing at Mountaineer and comes in off two bullet works.
Empire’s Fire was fourth in last year’s Honey Jay behind Stage Name, but he surged in the second half of the season to take the Best of Ohio Sprint and was named the state’s champion sprinter. He comes back to this year’s Honey Jay having won two straight races. Meanwhile, Stage Name is winless since last year’s edition and has been beaten twice by Empire’s Fire.
The $100,000 Best of Ohio Governor’s Buckeye Cup, at 1 1/4 miles, has two runners who excel at this distance. I Wanna Win won the 2022 and 2023 editions of this race, as well as the 2022 Best of Ohio Endurance in the fall. Fair and Square then came on, never finishing worse than second at this distance. He won the 2023 Endurance to secure state horse of the year honors and also rolled in last year’s Buckeye Cup, defeating I Wanna Win both times.
The card is rounded out by the $100,000 Best of Ohio Cleveland Kindergarten and the $100,000 Best of Ohio Miss Ohio for fillies, featuring the 2-year-old set.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.