Lous Pearlman, the 2021 Little Brown Jug champion, has been retired from racing and will stand stud in 2024.

The ownership group of Lous Pearlman p,3,1:47.4 ($1,263,185) has announced that their horse has been retired and will stand in Ohio at Hickory Lane Horse Farm beginning with the 2024 breeding season.

North America’s fastest two and three-year-old pacing colt of his respective freshman and sophomore seasons, Lous Pearlman retired as the second richest, and third fastest, stallion sired by Sweet Lou.

In 2020 at age two, Lous Pearlman started his career with a four-race winning streak, along with a 1:49.1 victory in a $119,100 Bluegrass Stakes division at Lexington’s Red Mile.

The following season, Lous Pearlman captured eight races, including an elimination heat and the final of the $661,800 Little Brown Jug, the $253,000 final of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and the $100,000 Max C. Hempt Memorial Consolation. He earned $593,519 during his 2021 sophomore campaign, defeating such top horses as Perfect Sting, Charlie May, Hellabalou and Southwind Gendry.

“Lous Pearlman is a great horse from my favourite maternal family," leading trainer Ron Burke stated about his homebred champion. "His ultra-game Jug victory is one of my most enjoyable wins ever.”

Royally-bred, Lous Pearlman is from the same maternal family as world champion and top sire Western Ideal p,2,1:54.3f; 1:48 ($1,455,422), and his full sister, My Girl EJ p,2,1:49.1-'23 ($715,835) won the 2023 Breeders Crown for two-year-old pacing fillies.

Handy on all sized tracks, Lous Pearlman took a 1:52.4 half-mile track record in his Jug victory on a track labelled ’good,’ and scored in 1:48.4 on Pocono’s five-eighths mile track.

This year at five, he earned $347,013, highlighted by a second-place finish behind stablemate Bythemissal in the $600,000 Breeders Crown Open Pace, defeating the likes of Tattoo Artist, Allywag Hanover and Abuckabett Hanover.  He was also stakes placed in the $185,000 Hoosier Park Pacing Derby and a $128,750 division of the Sam McKee Memorial.

Co-owner and breeder Mark Weaver is excited about the next phase of his horse’s career.

“I'm thrilled that Lous Pearlman landed in Ohio," said Weaver. "With his speed and ability to cross with most mares, he is a great option for the best stakes program going.”

Of course, this son of Sweet Lou heading to the breeding shed in the "Year of the Lou" may be no coincidence.

“We are grateful to the ownership of Lous Pearlman for entrusting Hickory Lane with their Little Brown Jug-winning son of Sweet Lou,” noted Kevin Greenfield, president of Hickory Lane Horse Farm. “He is sure to be very popular with breeders throughout North America and has already been well-received in Ohio.”

Lous Pearlman will stand for an introductory fee of $5,000. For more information regarding shares and breedings to Lous Pearlman, contact either R. Kevin Greenfield at 419-346-0609 or [email protected]; or Ashley Stickel, office manager, Hickory Lane Farm, at 419-422-3004 or [email protected].

(With files from Hickory Lane Farm)