He gave reinsman Anthony Butt his fourth win in the race. Butt has also won the Kurow Cup with Amenable (1993), Fortuno (2003) and The Flyin Doctor (2006).
Hostile Grins is trained by Anthony's brother, Tim, who prepared The Flyin Doctor.
Hostile Grins was slow away from 20m and settled some 20 lengths from the lead. He improved three wide with cover from the 1400m and gained the upper hand close to the line to win by a neck from Pay Me Cullen.
Hostile Grins ran the 2600m in 3.17, the fastest time for the race since Smooth Trickster won from a 45m handicap in 2001 and set the race record of 3.14.1.
Hostile Grins was having his first race for six months. The 6yr-old, who is owned on the Gold Coast by Paul Montgomery, has now won seven races from 16 starts.
• Woodlea Legend, who had his second win from as many starts, will have a short spell before contesting the Sires' Stakes series.
The 3yr-old led throughout 2000m (mobile) yesterday. The Grinfromeartoear-Secacus 3yr-old had won at Addington on July 29.
Woodlea Legend is trained at Rangiora by Thomas Twidle. He races him with his wife, Sharon, and Nelson couple Terry and Val Nelson. Terry is president of the Nelson Trotting Club. The same owners raced Live Dangerously, who won five races before being sold to Australia. Woodlea Legend is a half-brother to Live Dangerously. The Twidles bred both horses.
• Smitten, a sister to ill-fated Kahdon, led throughout to win a maiden trot. She is trained by Robbie Holmes for Mark Nickel, of Wellington, who bought her for $20,000 at the premier yearling sale. Kahdon won the Northern Trotting Derby and Sires' Stakes Trotters' Championship last year. She died in Australia after an illness attributed to salmonella.
• Brad Williamson had to settle for a second placing behind his brother Matthew when he began his race driving career yesterday. Brad drove Maori Invasion to finish second to Armbro Demon. It was a red-letter day for the Williamson family when Phil and his sons, Matthew, Nathan and Brad, drove in two races.
It was shades of Pat O'Reilly and his four sons Patrick, Kerry, Gerard and Leo driving in two divisions of the same race at the Kurow meeting in 1982.
Armbro Demon eclipsed the opposition, her fourth win in six starts for Oamaru owner-trainer Chris McLeod.
