In the featured $9,000 Open Trot, Baby Boy Grin, a four-year-old Grinfromeartoear gelding out of the Jate Lobell mare Orillia Babe, set a lifetime mark of 1:58.2 for the Nasty Boys Stable, here at Buffalo Raceway Friday night, June 12.

If the breeding sounds a little off for a trotter, you’re absolutely right. Baby Boy Grin ($11.00) leaving from Post 1 in the field of eight, with trainer-driver Jerry Nugent, Jr. in the sulky, settled in third as Craiger (Rich Mays) set the early fractions, :28.3, and :58.4. Going down the backstretch the second time, Baby Boy Grin unleashed a powerful backside brush, which saw him hit the three-quarter pole with the lead in 1: 28.2. A :30 last quarter-mile put the winner 7-1/2 lengths ahead of second place finisher Sir Prize Hall (Jack Flanigen) at the finish line. Speed Pilot (Tom Agosti) came in third.

“Wow, what a story this is,” said Nugent. “We purchased him at the Delaware sale as a two-year-old. He wouldn’t pace with the hobbles on. He was terrible and I got so mad, I took the hobbles off and tried him free-legged, and he was still bad,” said Nugent.

“All he wanted to do was trot. That same day I trained him trotting, looked at my watch, and it read 2:05. He was just perfect trotting, and much happier. His first schooling race out of the eight-hole, he went in 2:03, and he officially became a trotter."

The $4,500 share of the winning purse put Baby Boy Grin’s 2009 bankroll at $12,920, and $21,832 lifetime. It was his fourth win of the year.

(Buffalo Raceway)