Smoking Gun pulled off an improbable looking victory for driver Art Mcilmurray at 12-1 to win Friday's $100,000 William C. Connors Memorial for three-year-old trotters at Hazel Park.

Leaving from Post 3, the Yankee Glide – CR Seminole Sister colt was unhurried early on by Mcilmurray as they got away in sixth and remained on the rail, saving as much ground as possible until the final turn.

Shaman Hall (Billy Dobson) made the lead in :28 and yielded to Keykeeper (Mike Micallef), who moved third-to-first at the three-eighths and controlled at the :57.1 half. Keykeeper's lead, however, didn't last long as the even-money favourite Production (Peter Wrenn) moved up on the outside and took over after the intermission.

With Smoking Gun mired in traffic from sixth at the 1:26.3 three-quarters, Mcilmurray guided him off the rail between trotters, but they still had plenty of work to do.

Still with five lengths to make up and with less than an eighth to do it, Smoking Gun got in gear and absolutely flew home for Mcilmurray, gunning down Shaman Hall at the wire to win by a nose in 1:56.4. Production was third.

Harald Lunde trains Smoking Gun for owner Nils Munkhaugen. The colt is four-for-eight this year with earnings of $68,240. The victory pushed his career bankroll to $95,123.