by Kimberly Rinker, managing editor, Hoof Beats

Campbellville, ON — When trainer Jim Raymer paid $6,000 for Green Day at the 2005 Lexington fall sale, he was hoping for a solid raceway contender in his new charge. Little did he know that he had just signed the ticket on a future Yonkers Trot winner.

“I went to Lexington and his pedigree caught my eye, but that’s certainly not a reason to buy a horse,” Raymer said. “As a buyer you have to be sharp. I think the horse in the flesh is worth more than a pedigree on paper.

“I had been the under bidder on Magic Swan a few years before that when he sold, and this horse — Green Day — has a similar pedigree. He’s by Enjoy Lavec, out of a Lindy Lane mare, and when I saw him, I thought he looked like a winner.”

Raymer didn’t realize the significance of Green Day’s name either, but his kids changed that.

“After I bought him, I came home and told the kids and they said they were really happy about his name, because he was named after a famous band, and for that reason alone, he would probably be a special horse,” Raymer recalled.

Raymer says that Green Day showed a lot of racehorse ability early in his training. As the horse gained experience through his 2-year-old season, that ability began to escalate.

“I liked him more and more, and then it became a question of when was he going to stop getting better,” Raymer said.

Green Day didn’t stop getting better.

Instead, he went on to earn $44,370, winning one of nine starts, with a trio of second-place finishes at two, with a mark of 2:01h taken in that lone win at Freehold.

Raymer gave Green Day a lengthy winter rest, and the gelding responded by winning four races over three different ovals prior to his wire-to-wire victory in the $338,000 Nevele Pride at Monticello on June 25.

“He wasn’t eligible to the Yonkers Trot, but he handled the half-mile oval so well in his win at Monticello that I thought he deserved a shot against the big colts at Yonkers,” Raymer said.

One month later, Green Day turned in a perfect effort, trotting in 1:56 for Cat Manzi en route to winning the $644,770 Yonkers Trot over Up Front Larry and Adrian Chip. That $322,385 winner’s share of the purse was Green Day’s biggest paycheck ever.

“It couldn’t have been more of a thrill for us,” Raymer said. “It’s great to be able to race a good horse and to have that horse be competitive at the higher levels. It’s just a great thrill.”