LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Trainers never know for sure. When they examine horses, they make educated guesses about which prospects will eventually grow into great racers.
Trainers often swing and miss. Sometimes they connect. When Jim Raymer picked out Green Day in the fall of 2005, he was another horse with potential just like the many Raymer had seen before.
Time has proven that Green Day is more than potential. He s a champion. When I bought him, I didn t believe he d be this good, said Raymer, who was the only bidder and paid just $6,000 for Green Day at an auction in Lexington, Ky.
If I knew it, other people would have known it too. Green Day is stabled at Ginger Tree Farms in New Holland. He is harness racing s star of the moment.
He won the Yonkers Trot the second leg of the Trotters Triple Crown last month and has tied the world record for fastest time in the half-mile. After 30 successful years in the training business, Raymer has hit the jackpot. Everyone seems to know me now, he said.
I get my face on magazines and I m getting my 15 minutes of fame. It s like everybody is your brother all of a sudden. It can all be traced to that fateful day when Raymer bid on Green Day.
Selecting standardbred horses is a crapshoot. They don t have the obvious pedigrees of thoroughbreds and for that reason they are less expensive. Raymer chooses his horses through traits that seem like vagaries to the outsider, but make perfect sense to people who have spent a lifetime in the business.
Why did Raymer choose Green Day? He had good confirmation, a good eye on his head, Raymer said. He had the intelligent look.
Green Day s sire wasn t fashionable and his mother was unproven. That s why there wasn t a line around the corner to buy him. What Raymer couldn t see two years ago were the intangibles.
Race horses are often compared to athletes because they need to have the same desire and competitive spirit to succeed. Green Day obviously has it. He has the will to win, Raymer said.
When you pick a yearling out, you hope they have it. It s the one unknown. We can t define that.
If we could, I wouldn t be able to afford to buy anything. Green Day has 10 wins, one second and two third-place finishes in 17 races this year. He has earned over $650,000 in his career.
Raymer compared Green Day setting the half-mile world record to Carl Lewis winning the gold medal in the 100-meter dash. It s evidence that this horse has reached the pinnacle of his sport. For him to be the fastest is just evolution, Raymer said.
Someone will beat it a year from now or five years from now. But it is an accomplishment. It shows he is one of those superlative animals.
Raymer is a native of Ontario, Canada who has lived in New Holland for the past three years. He has conditioned nearly 350 winning horses and has trained other significant winners, including Scully FBI who won over $500,000 in prize money. Green Day has become Raymer s crown jewel.
Jim has done a wonderful job training this horse, said Sam Beegle, who owns Ginger Tree Farms. I ve watched him throughout. This is a nice colt, but I never thought it would be the colt it turned out to be.
Green Day, who didn t race in the Hambletonian, will face his next test at the Kentucky Futurity the final leg of the Triple Crown Saturday. It s another chance for this horse from Ginger Tree Farms to make national waves. We were known anyway, Beegle said of his stable.
But now everybody knows us. CONTACT US: jguarente@LNPnews.
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