The Buters are enjoying the ride with Billmar Scooter
April 17, 2012,by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent
Rich Fisher
Trenton, NJ — Amber Buter has a simplistic way of describing the emotions that Billmar Scooter invokes within her and husband Tyler Buter.
“We’ve just been very elated, basically,” Buter said.
There’s nothing better than basic elation, and it’s not hard to see why the Buters feel that way after they bought a share of Billmar Scooter at the invitation of owners Gene Oldford and Allen Sisco last March. Amber took over the training and Tyler began driving her.
Heading into Friday night’s fifth and final preliminary round of the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series for pacing mares at Yonkers, the 7-year-old is in 10th place in the points standings and one good finish away from qualifying for the final eight. And that’s after a sixth-place finish in the first round. She followed that with second, third and second-place finishes.
Mike Lizzi photo
Billmar Scooter has won 23 races and $413,361 in her career.
For the year, Billmar Scooter has won two of 10 races and earned $51,510, pushing her career totals to 23 victories and $413,361 in purses.
“We knew she was a nice mare, but to race against horses like these and finish where she’s finishing, it’s not been handed to her,” Buter said. “It really does put a smile on our faces. It’s hard not to look at her and smile the way she’s been racing. She’s definitely stepped up her game and we appreciate it.”
The Buters went in on the horse as a “friendship deal” according to Amber.
“We own a lot of horses with Gene and Allen,” she said. “It’s kind of hard to turn them down when you see all the money we’re racing for. She used to race against the other mare we had (Park Avenue) when they were racing stakes at Michigan together. We really appreciate them giving us this offer and want to thank them for it.”
Buter said since they acquired Billmar Scooter, her personality has gotten a bit “more rammy.”
“She’s gotten to be pretty racy,” Amber said. “When we first got her she was real easy to jog. She can be difficult on the track. She’s enjoying what she does and shows us each week she’s ready, but she can be a little tough to handle on the track.
“But she’s a real sweetheart in the stable. You wouldn’t even know she was there.”
After getting off to a late start last year, Billmar Scooter had a season of racing in mostly Opens at Yonkers Raceway and Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. She won seven of 25 starts and earned $219,980 for the campaign. Oldford wanted to stake her this year to see what potential was there. At first it didn’t look too good.
“She was kind of disappointing at the (Cape & Cutter) series at the Meadowlands,” Buter said. “We ended up not racing her in the Overbid. She didn’t come back real strong; she was having some soreness issues.”
Thus, the team took a step back and gave Billmar Scooter some starts in non-winners company to build her confidence.
“It seems to have worked,” Buter said. “We had kind of gotten down on her at the Meadowlands and we decided to put her in the Blue Chip as another test.”
Billmar Scooter has achieved high grades heading into Friday, when she will start from post No. 2 in the second of four Blue Chip Matchmaker divisions. Eric Goodell, who took over the driving duties from Tyler Buter after the first two rounds of the series, will be in the sulky again Friday night.
“She’s proven herself over and over,” Amber Buter said.
In the first round of the series, Billmar Scooter finished sixth, but only two lengths from winners See You At Peelers and Chancey Lady, who finished in a dead heat for first place.
“We had her coming off a layoff and she just hadn’t gotten herself together yet,” Buter said. “We drew the outside (post seven). There’s no mare in there that’s really easy. It was just (an unfortunate) post position, and we didn’t get a break.
“You can’t dwell on the little things. You gotta rally and go on, hoping the next week will be better.”
Better weeks did follow, evidenced by Billmar Scooter’s second-place finishes to See You At Peelers and Anndrovette, giving the Buters that basic elation kind of feeling.
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Anndrovette, who was last year’s Dan Patch Award winner as best older female pacer, leads the Blue Chip Matchmaker standings with 262 points. Rocklamation is second with 250, followed by Chancey Lady with 237.5.
See You At Peelers, the Dan Patch Award winner as 2011 3-year-old filly champion, is fourth with 212.5 points after skipping last week’s action. She is followed by Fox Valley Sage (212), Western Silk (200), Ginger And Fred (191), and Krispy Apple (172) in the top eight.
Naughtytiltheend (166), Billmar Scooter and Mystical Diva (both 162), and Hula’s Z Tam (161) are among those mares looking for big performances this weekend to vault into the series final.