Ontario-sired pacer Astronomer, the lukewarm favourite, held off Skyway Titan in a close photo finish to capture the $10,000 championship leg of the Rootbeer Slammer Series at Miami Valley Raceway on Wednesday night.
Using a quarter-move at the :27.3 first quarter station to make the front, Astromomer and driver Chris Page led every step the rest of the way through fractions of :56.3 and 1:25.2 and stopped the teletimer in 1:54.3.
The nine-year-old gelded son of Astreos, owned by Pamela Loomis and trained by Terry Deters, now has two wins plus a second and third-place finish in six seasonal starts.
Rootbeer Slammer was one of the hardest hitting war horses in southwest Ohio in the late 80’s and early 90’s winning 44 races. He was trained and co-owned by Diane Williams throughout his illustrious career and she also drove him in 151 of his 159 starts. In addition to a pair of Ohio Sires Stakes wins, Rootbeer Slammer won numerous Open races at Lebanon Raceway in addition to Invitational scores at Northfield Park, Scioto Downs, Louisville Downs and The Red Mile.
Sent off at 2-1 odds, Astromomer paid $6.20 to his $2 win backers. Coupled with Skyway Titan, the exacta returned a healthy $51.60.
(With files from Miami Valley)