Veteran Ohio driver wins Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway meet title by open lengths despite missing a large amount of time due to injury.

by Jay Wolf

You have to excuse driver Jeremy Smith if he wasn’t excited to see the ball drop on 2023. The soon-to-be 44-year-old reinsman from Washington Court House, OH, was on a heater and ran away with the recently concluded Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway meet drivers title, despite missing nearly a quarter of the meet.

Smith was sidelined for nearly eight weeks recovering from a sports hernia surgery. He spotted Chris Page and Dan Noble 38 and 24 wins, respectively, before he made his first Dayton drive. Thanks to a clean bill of health and a hot hand, Smith caught and passed the perennial driving leaders and won the meet by 24 driving wins.

“I took off my drives a couple of weeks before the end of the [Eldorado Scioto Downs] meet,” said Smith. “My doctor told me that if I felt okay keep going. I drove with it for a little while; a week. I could not do it. The pain was too much.

“I don’t know how I got the hernia. It sucked. This was the first time that I had a couple of horses that I drove for Todd Luther that would have been in the [Ohio Sire Stakes] finals. It was hard to be sitting at home, laid up, watching the finals.”

Smith returned to the track on Tuesday (Oct. 17) and the winner’s circle in the sixth race. Fifty-four race dates later, Smith drove his 141st and final winner of the 91-date meet.

Of his 141 winners, Smith brought 104 different horses to the Dayton winner’s circle. The then 9-year-old pacer, Western Hill was Smith’s top performer with four wins.

“Western Hill is one of my unsung favorites,” Smith said. “I like that little horse. He does everything right and the right way.”

Smith spread the wealth by driving winners for 54 different trainers, including 28 winners for Tessa Perin.

Perin and Smith teamed up for seven wins on the Dec. 14 card.

Despite that memorable night, Smith may have been more excited after his four wins for his son, Parker.

“He does a pretty good job for a younger guy,” said the proud father. “He started working for a couple of guys like Dan Ater and Jason Brewer for a while. He has since ventured out on his own. He made the decision that he wanted his own horses. He’s doing well.”

Jeremy finished the 2023 year with 267 wins, one more than last year’s total with 450 fewer drives. His earnings of $3.0 million were just $71,000 below his career best.

The 2023 Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway title was his third at the track (2018 and 2022 previously) and his fourth overall title. He won the 2012 Lebanon Raceway title.

Jeremy scored his 2,000th and 3,000th career wins at Dayton in 2018 and 2022 as well.

So, what is it about the 10-year-old five-eighths mile oval?

“I don’t know,” Jeremy said with a laugh. “I credit a lot of it to it being a racehorse meet. It’s kind of a speed track and that speed holds up. You can make bold moves. A horse can come first up and keep digging.

“It’s crazy how everything aligns for me at Dayton. The facility is great, the people are great. I just love that place. It’s just a great place to race horses.”

Jeremy was introduced to the sport by his grandparents, Bill and Barbara Redman.

“They had some horses with some family members,” Jeremy said. “My grandfather died at the age of 56, when I was 12 years old. I stared working with [trainer] Alvin Long a couple of years later. I sure miss those dudes.”

Jeremy developed his love for horses from his grandfather, as well as his affection for classic cars.

“I’m working on a square body, two-wheel drive truck,” Jeremy said. “I call it a [Cor]vette with a bed. This is the biggest project I have done, from the ground up. I have spent a year on it and I will be done in the spring.

“It is the same type of truck my grandfather would take me to school in.”

With the southern Ohio action moving to the Miami Valley Gaming, does Jeremy have a goal for that meet?

“I have one goal, just to stay healthy,” he said.