Gorgeous Big Guy (Todd Warren), shown down here winning Hawthorne’s Incredible Finale 2-year-old championship, was unbeaten as a freshman in Illinois. (Four Footed Fotos) 

 By Mike Paradise for the I.H.H.A. 

 The adage “It’s Not Important How You Start, But How You Finish” has been around for ages but it still holds true nowadays, and a perfect example is the state-bred pacer Gorgeous Big Guy, the recipient of the 2023 Illinois 2-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year award at last week’s Horsemen’s Banquet in Springfield.

 The homebred son of Ashlee’s Big Guy, out of the Palone Ranger broodmare Gorgeous Ranger, started off his racing career with four consecutive second place finishes in Michigan Bred Colt Stakes, for trainer and owner Tim Roach.

 Gorgeous Big Guy did nail down his first career victory near the end of last July at the Big Axe fair track for Roach with a 2:01.1 mile on a “good” racing surface. A few weeks later he was again second best in a Michigan fair outing nevertheless once he was sent to Illinois last September his runner-up finishes were over, and instead the youngster became unbeatable.

 Gorgeous Big Guy will begin his second season campaign riding a six-race winning streak, all in ICF stake events, and left no doubt he was No. 1 in his division in 2923.

 In Illinois, the juvenile pacer always rose to the occasion. First, he captured his $25,000 Directors Cup split at Du Quoin in 1:52.4 despite being parked out throughout the mile. He followed that performance with an easy victory in a $21,000 Illinois State Fair Colt Stake division—shifted to Hawthorne after the event was rained-out at Springfield—when he blew away his opposition by almost five lengths with a wicked 26.3 last quarter.

 Roach then sold his prize freshman pacer in a private transaction to Doug Overhiser of New Smyrma Beach, Florida and Mark Winship of Canton, Illinois, and the horse joined the Midwest Division of the always strong Erv Miller Stable.

 Veteran Illinois circuit driver Todd Warren took over the driver chores behind the talented 2-year-old and the Chicago native guided Gorgeous Big Guy to victories in the last two $25,000 legs of the Incredible Finale stake series. The gelding saved his best for the $174,000 Night of Champions final where he pretty much coasted to his fifth straight triumph with a new mark of 1:52.1.

 Gorgeous Big Guy finished his initial campaign with another comfortable victory, his sixth in a row, in a $25,825 division of the Cardinal stake at Hawthorne. He banked $115,880 in his first season, with over $116,000 of that amount in his last four season starts for his current owners.

 “Gorgeous Big Guy is being trained-down to Florida,” said Atlee Bender who manages his father-in-law Erv Miller’s Midwest division of the Indiana based stable.

 “I’ve got good reports on him. “He’s coming along well. He’s gotten stronger. He hasn’t grown much. He’s still a small horse but he has a big motor in him. He’s very athletic.

 “As far as I know, the plan is still to send him back to his previous owner (Tim Roach) who will race him in Michigan stakes to start off his second season, and then later have him race in Illinois.