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Under a heady ride by Ricardo Mejias, Raise the BAR Racing LLC's Dean Martini shot through an opening on the inside approaching the far turn, seized command from Lebda, then held off a late charge from South Bend to win Saturday's Grade 3 Ohio Derby at JACK Thistledown in North Randall, Ohio.

Dean Martini, a 3-year-old gelding by Cairo Prince out of Soundwave, by Friends Lake, covered 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:51.60 and $31.20 for the win. He is trained by Tom Amoss.

South Bend held second ahead of 2-1 favorite Storm the Court in third, with Rowdy Yates fourth in the field of 13 following the scratches of Soros and Celtic Striker (who ran at Belmont Park on Thursday). Completing the order of finish were Sprawl (3-1 second choice), Lebda, Rogue Element, Unrighteous, Informative, Bear Alley, Code Runner, Established, and Dack Janiel's.

The Ohio Derby winner, who was bred in Kentucky by Brereton C. Jones and Bret Jones, earned 20 qualifying points for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby.

Claimed for $50,000 two starts back from Brad Cox, Dean Martini earned $300,000 from the Ohio Derby's $500,000 purse. It was his second victory from 10 starts in a career that began last summer in the stable of Peter Miller, who raced the gelding once at Ellis Park in Kentucky and three times in California without a win.

Dean Martini surfaced in the Cox barn at Fair Grounds in December, where he finished third in a maiden special race on turf. Cox shipped Dean Martini to Oaklawn in Arkansas, where he ran second and third in maiden special weight races, then won for the first time when dropped in for a $50,000 maiden claiming tag at Churchill Downs on May 17. He drew out by 6 3/4 lengths that day and was claimed by Amoss.

Dean Martini made one start since then, finishing second to Man in the Can in a June 12 allowance/optional claimer at Churchill Downs.

Breaking from the rail post position in the Ohio Derby, Dean Martini grabbed an early lead, then sat just off the pace as Rowdy Yates and Lebda volleyed for command through fractions of :22.80, :47.22 and 1:11.88.

Mejias urged Dean Martini through an opening on the inside to tackle Lebda approaching the far turn, dispatched that rival, then held sway to the finish after a mile was clocked in 1:38.22 en route to his final time of 1:51.60.

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Unbeaten as a 3-year-old with back-to-back stakes wins at Laurel Park in Maryland, Euro Stable's Lebda (by Raison d'Etat) will face his biggest challenge yet when he stretches out for his return to graded company in Saturday's $500,000 Ohio Derby (G3) at Thistledown.

Based at Laurel with summer meet-leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez, Lebda is listed as second choice on the morning line at odds of 7-2 in a field of 15 led by lukewarm 3-1 program favorite Storm the Court, the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner and subsequent 2-year-old male champion.

“We've been looking at races everywhere because here at Laurel we don't have anything right now, and this race came up,” Gonzalez said. “He needs to run. He's feeling really good and he's ready, that's why we decided to go over there. And he fits right in with the horses there.”

Contested at 1 1/8 miles, the Ohio Derby will be the Lebda's longest race to date and first since a convincing 4 ¼-length triumph in the Private Terms March 14 at Laurel, also around two turns at about 1 1/16 miles. He was a front-running three-quarter-length winner of the one-mile Miracle Wood Feb. 15 in his season opener.

Lebda raced twice in graded-stakes as a 2-year-old, running third in the 1 1/16-mile Iroquois (G3) at Churchill Downs before a ninth-place finish in the one-mile Nashua (G3) in November at Aqueduct – his only time off the board in eight career starts that include four wins.

“All the time he gets better and better. He's more mature now and he's concentrating more on his training,” Gonzalez said. “He won around two turns and he ran two turns before at Churchill Downs, too, and I don't think he ran bad.

“I really think he's going to like the track over there and he's going to run good. He's going to be right there,” he added. “We're going to try to get a good position going into the first turn and then we'll see what happens.”

Thistledown, located in North Randall, Ohio, outside Cleveland, will be the fifth racetrack for Lebda, having also romped by 11 lengths in a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming sprint last summer at Delaware Park.

Lebda was among the late nominees to the Triple Crown for a fee of $3,000, half of the original price tag before the deadline was extended to June 4 amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which put Maryland's live racing on pause for 2 ½ months until May 30.

Maryland's leading trainer the past three years, Gonzalez has given Lebda nine timed works over Laurel's main track since the Private Terms, including three consecutive bullet five-furlong breezes – 59.20 seconds May 29, 59.60 seconds June 12 and 1:00.20 June 19, respectively the fastest of 26, 11 and 17 horses.

“The owner [Valter Ramos] is a really good owner, a really good person, and that's why I try to run in the big races because you never know, especially when they're doing good,” Gonzalez said. “He's doing really good. He's happy.”

Gonzalez has one graded-stakes victory on his resume, the 2017 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) at Laurel with Chublicious. Regular rider Alex Cintron will make the trip to ride with four previous graded wins, two of them coming last year – the Highlander (G1) on Wet Your Whistle and Honorable Miss (G2) aboard Minit to Stardom.

Cintron and Lebda will break from Post 4. Post time for the Ohio Derby, Race 8 at Thistledown, is 4:22 p.m. ET.

Other Ohio Derby horses with Maryland connections are stakes winner South Bend, owned by Sagamore Farm of Reisterstown, Md., and Trin-Brook Stables Inc.'s Informative, second by a nose in the James F. Lewis III last November at Laurel.

Magic Weisner, based in Maryland with his late breeder, owner and trainer Nancy Alberts, won the Private Terms and was second in the Preakness Stakes (G1) in 2002 before capturing that year's Ohio Derby.

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