by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Balmoral Park

Crete, IL — The 2011 Balmoral Park stakes schedule kicked off on Saturday (April 2) with a field of 10 Illinois conceived and foaled 3-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 honors at odds of 10-1 as he rolled to a one length victory in a career best of 1:54.4.

Balmoral Park photo

Big Gus and driver Leroy Miller toted home top honors in Saturday’s $9,000 Taurus Bomber Stake.

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 he 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 Get’s The Money (Mike Oosting) and Rockin Rumble (Marcus Miller).

Unfortunately for the chalk players Rockin Rumble, the 6-5 favorite 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 Get’s 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.