Buffalo Raceway’s Publicity Director Sam Pendolino and Tim Bojarski, National Vice-President of the United States Harness Writers Association, were trackside to present the awards for the top human and equine performers for the 2012 Buffalo Raceway meet on Saturday night.
The 2012 driver of the meet was Shawn Gray. He was simply the best driver at Buffalo Raceway this year and his numbers prove it. His 202 wins were almost 50 better than his nearest competitor and the over $1 million dollars in purses that he bankrolled was at least 25 per cent higher than the next closest in the driver colony. That total also eclipsed his personal career high for earnings for a year and he accomplished that in only six months. His .336 UDR and 50 per cent in the money percentage has made Gray the betting public’s favourite both on and off track.
Hamburg native Jim Graham was Buffalo Raceway’s trainer of the meet. His stable members compete across the spectrum from claimers to conditions to stakes and his knack of getting horses ready and keeping them sharp has shown well this year. This meet, his 82 dash wins were tops among local conditioners and a very impressive number, considering that his career best for training wins in a year was 122 in 2009. And again like Gray, Graham achieved this total in only six months.
Buffalo Raceway’s 2012 horse of the meet was Golden Terror. This five-year-old gelded son of Western Terror won 11 races during the meet and every one of them was in Open company. He set a lifetime mark of 1.53.2 on June 16 and just missed matching that time in a bold victory here just last week. He won over $70,000 in purses, which more than doubled his lifetime earnings up to this point. Golden Terror is owned by Terri and David Esposito of the Team Italia Racing Stable and is trained by John Mungillo.
Racing will resume on Sunday, July 22 with first post scheduled for 1:05 p.m., Eastern Time. It’s the last day of live racing, and the meet ends with the NYSS for two-year-old pacing fillies.
(Buffalo Raceway)