Top ranked North America Cup contender Sweet Lou turned in an impressive 1:50.4 qualifying effort Friday morning at The Meadows

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Sweet Lou and driver Dave Palone took command of the field from the outside post seven and rolled past panels of :27.3, :57, and 1:24 before sprinting home in :26.4. The Yankee Cruiser-Sweet Future colt won by 29 lengths over Rockin Reese and Wanna Go Fast.

The qualifier was the second this season for the colt. He turned in a 1:54.1 mile on April 20 at The Meadows. His first pari-mutuel start is expected to be a Pennsylvania Sire Stake event.

Sweet Lou won 10 races and never finished worse than second in 12 starts as a two-year-old while earning $688,117 in purses. The Ron Burke trainee, owned by Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Lawrence Karr, and Phillip Collura, ended his freshman year with a 1:49 World Record performance in the Breeders Crown and collected the Dan Patch trophy for his division.

Sweet Lou is the No. 1 ranked colt in Trot Magazine's 2012 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book and is the early favourite in the Little Brown Jug rankings.