The pacing-bred Baby Boy Grin became Yonkers Raceway's fastest trotter ever Thursday night, blowing away a $20,000 conditioned event in 1:54.4
.
With Larry Stalbaum doing the honours, the four-year-old Grinfromeartoear gelding took no prisoners from the pole. The 2-5 favourite threw down the gauntlet through fractions of :28.1, :57.1 and 1:25.1. He led by three lengths at the half, a half-dozen at the three-quarter pole and eight turning for home. His final margin was 8-1/4 lengths over Hurrikanebiggeorge (Jason Bartlett), with KLM Express (Jim Marshall III) third.
Baby Boy Grin, co-owned by trainer Kim Asher and Mike Sorentino, Jr., returned $2.80 for his seventh win (third consecutive) in 19 seasonal starts. His record-setting effort displaced American Lane and his 1:55.1 mile (June 7, 2008) from the Raceway record books.
"He was just real sharp tonight," Stalbaum said. "He did all by himself."
"The story I heard about him was that Erv Miller originally paid $40,000 for him, and he wouldn't pace a lick. He wound up selling him [to Buffalo-based owners] for about $4,500.
"They turned him into a trotter, and he began making progress. I found out about him, then watched some of his races. He was trotting some big miles up there, and liked what I saw. I bought him [in mid-June] for $55,000, because I thought he'd at least fit well in the conditioned races here."
To say the least.
The previous record for "Baby Boy's" age group (four-year-old) gelding was 1:56, set by Four Starz Speed earlier this month. Ironically, Baby Boy Grin had that "old" record--1:56.1--for a grand total of eight days.
(Yonkers Raceway)