El Toro Loco bullish at Buffalo Raceway

HAMBURG, N.Y. — El Toro Loco (Walner) was bullish on the field in Buffalo Raceway’s $14,000 Open Trot on Saturday afternoon (March 8) as he was crazy good in capturing the 2-1/2 length harness racing victory over My One Percent in 2:00.1 over the good track.

Starting from the four spot in the field of five, driver Kevin Cummings put El Toro Loco immediately to the point, cruising through fractions of :30.4, 1:01.4 and 1:31.3. Turning for home, there was little competition as El Toro Loco glided to the impressive victory while My One Percent (Kyle Cummings) was second best and Double Class (David McNeight III) took the show spot.

Co-owned by the El Dorado Stables and Michael Torcello, the 6-year-old gelded El Toro Loco (Walner-Southwind Cabaret) has collected three wins in five attempts on the season. Trained by Samuel Smith, El Toro Loco has earned $19,750 on the year and $245,515 in his career.

The victory was just one of five for driver Kevin Cummings while trainer Samuel Smith had four wins.

The undercard on Saturday’s program had a pair of $12,000 paces along with a $12,000 event for the trotters.

Villiam (Joseph Chindano Jr.) returned back to Buffalo Raceway after a stay at The Meadowlands and was impressive in taking the opener in gate to wire fashion, easily disposing of Oaxacan Dream N by 3-1/4 length in 1:56.3. Villiam used a 28.3 final split to score the popular $3.50 victory.

Owned by Chindano Jr. and trained by Maggie Chindano, it was the first victory in seven tries on the season for Villiam (Rock N Roll Heaven-Village Mirage). The win increased his seasonal earnings to $13,095 and $432,143 in his career.

In the other division, Runrunjimmydunn N (Kevin Cummings) made it two straight easy victories by wiring the field in 1:58.1.

Scoring from the six post, Runrunjimmydunn N ($3.10) immediately took charge of the top and posted splits of :29.4, 1:00.0 and 1:29.2 to easily hold back Blazing Light (Kyle Cummings) by a solid 1-1/2 lengths.

Owned by the Three Ring Circus Stable and trained by Samuel Smith, Runrunjimmydunn N (American Ideal-Delightful Paula) has now earned $17,460 on the campaign and $651,427 lifetime.

In the $12,000 trot, it was a match race between Grinder (Chindano Jr.) and the heavily favored Crazy Fool (Kyle Cummings) as the two went stride for stride down the long home stretch. But approaching the wire, Grinder ($9.20) was able to ‘grind’ Crazy Fool into submission to take the 1-1/2 length victory in 2:00.4.

Grinder is owned by the PT Stable with Candace Brandstatter-Hall doing the conditioning. The win was the first of 2025 for Grinder (Andover Hall-Wishful Me), putting $15,000 in the bank this season and $312,537 lifetime.

Chindano Jr. had four driving wins with Drew Monti scoring a pair. Brandstatter-Hall, Maggie Chindano and Marc Shuttleworth had two training victories.

Racing will resume on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. with a 14-race card slated.

For more information including the latest news, upcoming promotions, entries, results and race replays, go to www.buffaloraceway.com

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting Results

by Brian J. Mazurek, for Buffalo Raceway