The trotter-turned-pacer has overcome a gruesome injury last season.

by Jay Wolf

On June 1, 2023, the 7-year-old gelding, Tugboat Tuffy, won a ‘non-winners of one’ conditioned event at Eldorado Scioto Downs.

Newsworthy? Maybe. You don’t see too many 7-year-olds in a maiden event.

But what was truly newsworthy was the fact the gelding won the same class of race on May 7, 2019.

How can you win two ‘non-winners of one’ events, four years apart?

Tugboat Tuffy raced his first four years as a trotter and just recently switched to the pace, opening new opportunities for this war horse.

“I’ve had him since he was a baby and he’s wanted to pace the whole time,” said Bucky Troute, the gelding’s 69-year-old owner/trainer and part-time driver. “I only raced him a couple of starts as a 2-year-old. He came back as a 3-year-old and won eight races that summer. He would always look to flip over to the pace.”

Tugboat Tuffy showed he had the speed — winning in 1:54.3 at Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway — and class, earning over $118,000. He always had issues with breaks in stride.

Earlier this season on St. Patrick’s Day, Troute and Tugboat Tuffy looked to change their luck in their first qualifying effort of the season. Driver Brett Miller comfortably had the gelding on the lead and then within sight of the finish line, Tuffy broke stride and finished 15 lengths back.

“I told Brett that I would take care of him by putting the hobbles on him… Brett assumed trotting hobbles, and I said, ’No, I am going to put the pacing hobbles on him,’” Troute said. “I just figured that if he wanted to pace as a 7-year-old I was going to let him.”

Just five weeks later, the Break The Bank K pacer made his first qualifying effort wearing those hobbles. Tugboat Tuffy finished sixth, 30 ½ lengths behind the winner, timed in 1:58.4; but with a flat line.

“It’s kind of an amazing thing. He is so much more relaxed and gaited,” Troute said. “It’s unreal… He has no pacing blood in him whatsoever.”

His first pacing race was on May 25 at Scioto Downs.

“I told [driver] Trevor [Smith] to just duck him off the gate and let’s sit with him,” Troute said. “‘Let him get used to race fractions. If you feel okay, race him because he’s ready.’”

Sitting dead last in the field of nine at the half-mile station and 13 lengths off the lead, Smith eased Tugboat Tuffy off the rail, starting their march to the front.

The pair finished fourth by 3 ½ lengths after pacing their last half-mile in :55.3 and last quarter in :27.4.

Smith and Troute were looking for improvements and more learning opportunities during Tuffy’s second start on June 1.

Despite having post 2, Tuffy found himself sixth at the half mile station and again was forced to come first up.

“When [Trevor] came with him this time, he went three-wide around the final turn and went right by them and opened up,” Troute said.

Tugboat Tuffy was a 1 ¼ length winner in 1:54.2.

“I think that after that win he was trying to tell me that he wanted to pace the whole time and I finally gave into him,” said Troute with a laugh. He is currently training eight at the Fayette County Fairgrounds in Washington Court House, OH.

Combined with his 1:54.3 mark on the trot, Tugboat Tuffy is now the fastest double-gaited performer on a five-eighths mile track.

“That is a good feeling,” Troute said. “He deserves it, he has been through a lot.”

The ‘a lot’ Troute was referencing was a horrific accident on Aug. 3, 2022 at the Greene County Fair in Xenia, OH.

“I had a real good filly; she was a sire stake filly,” Troute said. “The owner wanted to race at Xenia, so I took Tuffy over there with me to race in the Signature Series.

“I hadn’t driven in three years, but decided to drive Tuffy that day.”

While making a backstretch move at the three-quarter pole, Troute and Tuffy ran into a breaking leader who was pulled off the rail and abruptly stopped.

Troute was dumped on the track and Tugboat Tuffy got loose, ran out of the track’s draw gate and slammed into a large trash dumpster, cutting the trotter from his neck to his chest.

Troute made a trip the hospital and Tuffy was taken to Ohio State University’s Veterinary Hospital in Columbus where he received 18 stitches.

“They told me that they didn’t think he would ever race again,” Troute said.

Tugboat Tuffy was off the track until his March 17 trot qualifier this spring.

“He’s our war horse,” Troute said.

And he has the scars to prove it.