Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Driver of the Month
for December 2011

Greg Grismore

Greg Grismore jogged his first horse when he
was seven and has never looked back. For Grismore, a native of Bluffton, Ohio, about an hour from Toledo, becoming involved in harness racing was as natural as throwing a ball or swinging a bat. At 6'1" and 170 pounds, he hasn't let his size keep him from winning races, with over 5,000 to his credit.

Greg Grismore

He jogged his first horse when he was 7 and never looked back.

“I was pretty much born into racing,” he says. “I got away from it a little in middle school and high school. I played football, basketball and baseball, but even though I had scholarship offers from some small colleges I liked racing better. I started driving the summer of my senior year in high school.”

Grismore began his career at Toledo’s Raceway Park, shipping in from his dad’s farm an hour away and also racing at Northville, Scioto Downs and Northfield. He found it tough to get catch drives because he drove all his father’s stock, so he moved to Toledo full time in 1995 with a small stable of his own and he began picking up catch drives. Two years later, Toledo horsemen went on strike and Grismore ended up at Northfield Park.

“Everything took off almost immediately for me when I moved to Cleveland,” Greg says.

In fact, after hovering around the 60 win mark each year during the early ‘90s, Greg posted 95 victories in 1995 and steadily increased that total, winning a career best 615 races in 2004
(which ranked him fourth among all drivers in North America). For four straight years, from
2003-2006, Grismore won the driving title at Northfield Park.

Toward the end of the ’06 campaign, Grismore opted to leave Ohio and moved to New York State, where the VLTs have allowed purses to climb to a level that is far and abovewhat is available in Ohio. Spending most of the 2007 season at Yonkers Raceway, Grismore finished second at the Hilltop oval in both wins (295) and earnings ($3,801,791), while ranking third in UDR (.298). His overall purse winnings of $5,835,622 more than doubled his previous career best and ranked him 18th among all drivers in North America.

Cambest Prince is the horse that helped Grismore make his mark. He drove the twotime
Northfield Park Horse of the Year to a world record mile in 2002 and won the Bert Beckwith Memorial at Plainridge with him that year. He also won Harrington’s Governor’s Cup with “The Prince” in 2003 and 2004.

“Prince helped get me recognized and got me a lot more opportunities,” Grismore points out.

During the 2007 season, Grismore had a lot of success as the pilot for the 3-year-old pacing
gelding Won The West. The Western Hanover lad enjoyed a superb campaign with 16 victories
in 28 starts and earnings of $650,374. Greg was in the bike for triumphs in the $275,000 American-National, a $190,000 Tattersalls division (in a lifetime best 1:49.1), and the $165,000 Jug Preview. They were second in the $320,125 Adios Final and fourth in both the $555,000 Breeders Crown Final and the $326,400 Little Brown Jug Final.

Greg also had some big victories that year behind the free-for-all pacer Maltese Artist. He piloted the Artiscape 6-year-old in the $475,000 Levy Series Final, the $205,000 American-National Final and the $75,000 Bert Beckwith Memorial.

Greg Grismore's Career Statistics Through December 1, 2011
Year      Sts/Wins/2nds/3rds          Earnings      UDRS
2011      1930   193   192    218           $2,105,441     0.193
2010      1878   207 185    226            $2,590,965     0.205
2009      1792 234 263   238           $4,534,335    0.256
2008      2410 306   311   316           $5,406,262      0.242
2007      2508 390   414    350           $5,835,622      0.294
2006      2353 545   451    328           $2,137,545      0.385
2005      2076   531 367    254           $1,876,349      0.395
2004      2626 615 448    344           $2,596,411      0.373
2003      2476 454 400    303           $1,978,985      0.314
2002      2603 404   396    326           $1,724,289      0.281
2001      2420   336   345    351           $1,403,414      0.266
2000      2245   323   328    304           $1,462,942      0.270
1999      1894   242   266    265           $1,095,399      0.252
1998      1485   185   196    200           $653,173        0.243
1997      940    162   141    133            $326,155        0.303
1996      893    142 127   137            $246,030         0.289
1995      614      95   94     68             $168,459         0.277
1994      442      67    68      58             $116,930         0.281
1993      411      74    59      52             $112,403         0.302
1992      391      79    73      57             $141,228         0.354
1991      334      63    53      48             $124,838         0.325
1990      421      64    83      51             $171,633         0.302
1989      332      62    55      55             $132,446         0.334
1988      151      36    31      22             $50,710           0.401
1987      26         1      4      3              $2,854             0.162
Total              5,810                         $36,994,818