They didn’t need another hero at Balmoral Park Saturday night.
St Elmo Hero was more than enough as the streaking Illinois-bred wheeled through a mild horizontal snow to run his career record to a perfect 24-0.
In a grand homecoming, the 5-year-old gelding comfortably dispatched an upstreaming crew of four in a $10,900 free-for-all.
”The little guy” wired the pretenders in a comfortable mile of 1:50 flat.
Reunited with driver Bobby Smolin for the first time since October, St Elmo Hero never was threatened.
”There wasn’t a lot of pressure because the horse was clearly the best in the race,” Smolin said. ”The main thing was to keep him out of trouble.”
Smolin did just that. He gave ”Elmo” only a few chummy snaps of the whip early in the stretch when eventual place finisher Park Lane Hotshot (6-1) angled out from third for the drive.
The final winning margin of four lengths prompted a win return of $2.10.
The race was the first at Balmoral for the John Barnard-owned gelding since he won the first eight starts of his career in Crete last year.
If he checks out well, St Elmo Hero will now head for the Cam Fella series at Woodbine Racecourse in Toronto. The two-weekend event begins Saturday.
”I think we had some concerns,” Barnard said. ”Bobby hadn’t driven him in a few months and we were coming back to a surface we hadn’t been on since September. But things went well and now I hope it’s on to Toronto.”
Barnard, an Orland Park businessman, donated the gelding’s paycheck of $5,450 to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
The 24 victories have grossed $202,450.
The sport’s record for consecutive career-opening victories is 35, set by the great Bret Hanover in 1964-65.
