"It was nice to get through the racing season without any [COVID-19] restrictions," said Jon Cramer, Buffalo Raceway Assistant General Manager, as the track completed the live meet on Saturday (July 16).
A switch from evening start times to afternoon racing resulted in pretty good results for the Hamburg, New York half-mile oval.
"The handle was slightly down both on and off track for the year but the winter months played havoc," said Cramer. "We are going to also look at our promotions this fall, on what worked and what didn't. I am sure one of the promotions that will return is the Kentucky Derby Party."
Jim Morrill Jr. collected his second consecutive driving title and fourth overall at Buffalo Raceway by scoring 91 victories in just 303 starts. He was also the leading purse earner with $867,305. Drew Monti was second in the rankings with 75 wins, with Kevin Cummings third with 65 victories.
Shawn McDonough won his first ever training crown by sending out 54 winners on the season, and he also posted 33 driving victories. He was also tops in money collected with $425,218. Gerry Sarama was second in the trainer's standings with 33 while Jennifer Giuliani and Ryan Swift shared third place honours with 31 each.
While enjoying the Trainer Of The Meet award, McDonough also celebrated his trainee Mugshots Bro, who was named Trotter Of The Meet.
The 10-year-old Mugshots Bro (Jailhouse Jesse-Photo Emmy) is co-owned by Herman Niedhammer and Herman Niedhammer Jr. Mugshots Bro collected six wins, a second and a third place finish in 10 starts on the season. He earned $48,845 and had a five-race win streak with four of those coming from outside posts.
Stop Action was a model of consistency and determination throughout the season and claimed the Pacer Of The Meet award.
Owned by Super Mile LLC and trained by Angelo Nappo, the five-year-old gelded Stop Action (Somebeachsomewhere-The Show Returns, started the campaign in the $5,500 level but steadily worked his way up the ladder and into the Open competition.
In 18 starts, Stop Action finished in the money 16 times including eight victories and bankrolled $69,595, the most of any horse at the track. His seasonal best was 1:54 and he was driven by Kevin Cummings through much of the year.
There were eight track records broken during the season including three all-age standards.
The trotters saw two all-age marks fall by the wayside as Je Suis Si Belle snapped the all-age filly time with a 1:56.1 victory, which also was good enough to re-write the three-year-old filly barrier. Barn Hall established a new record for the all-age and four-year-old trotting horses with a 1:56.2 win.
Gotthegreenlight made a name for herself by placing her name in the record books with a 1:52.2 victory, which eclipsed the all-age and three-year-old filly pacing marks. Vivians Dream broke the two-year-old filly record with a 1:54.4 mile tour and American Fling erased the two-year-old gelding record with a 1:55.1 win.
Statistically, Buffalo Raceway's post time favourites won at a 48.26 per cent clip.
(Buffalo Raceway)