The 2011 Balmoral Park stakes schedule kicked off on Saturday, April 2 with a field of 10 Illinois conceived and three-year-old pacing colts squaring off in the $9,000 Taurus Bomber Stake

. When the smoke cleared from this wild and wooly affair it was G&B Stable of Illinois’ Big Gus toting home top honours at odds of 10-1 as he rolled to a one-length victory in a career best of 1:54.4.

Leaving from post position 10 the gelded son of Sportsmaster-Cr First Lady was floated away from the gate by driver Leroy Miller, and after settling in fifth through an opening quarter in :28.4, wound up outside for the remainder of the mile.

Avoiding a nasty break by Jo Jo Spur (Art Gregory Jr.) as the field moved by a half in :57.4, Miller continued to move the Roger Welch trainee towards a battling AJ Gets The Money (Mike Oosting) and Rockin Rumble (Marcus Miller).

Unfortunately for the chalk players, Rockin Rumble, the 6-5 favourite in the race, made a break while sitting in the pocket as the field moved towards the three-quarter-mile mark.

In the lane a leg weary AJ Gets The Money, who was making his sophomore debut, began to tire while a fit and fresh Big Gus continued to cut into the margin. Taking control with an eighth-of-a-mile to go, Big Gus was never seriously threatened the rest of the way as he posted his second career win in 11 starts. Another longshot, 30-1 Cole Snap (Homer Hochstetler), rallied to take second while 36-1 longshot Rejoiceandbeglad (Brian Carpenter) finished third.

Only one lucky fan selected the winning trifecta combination, which returned a whopping $23,031.40 for 50-cents while one winning bettor captured the superfecta combination of 10-9-3-5, which returned $13,406.91.

(Balmoral Park)