Fresh off an appearance in the 2025 Little Brown Jug, Lous Starr scored an impressive wire-to-wire win on Sunday, Oct. 5 at Shenandoah Downs to establish a new track record for three-year-old pacers.
Competing in a $12,500 conditioned event, Lous Starr faced a field of older rivals, sent off as the 1-2 betting choice from post eight. The three-year-old Sweet Lou colt surged to the front for driver Fern Paquet Jr. after exiting the first turn, passing Rebellious (William Carter) and Leonards Legacy (Timothy Deaton) and authoring an initial quarter of :27.2. The winner went on to cut additional panels of :55.1 and 1:23.3 before crossing the wire in 1:52, just one fifth of a second off the overall track record of 1:51.4 set by Marco Beach. Leonards Legacy finished second, 1-1/4 lengths behind while Rebellious took third.
Trained by Scott Warnick for owner Dan Chansky of Powhatan, Va., Lous Starr earned his 12th career win and pushed his bankroll to $172,986. The pacer has been based at Shenandoah Downs the past three live meets and has thrived with eight wins in nine starts here. His only blemish was a second-place finish during the 2025 spring meet.
Paquet, who has driven Lous Starr in all eight Woodstock wins, notched his 3,500th career victory with that track record tally. Paquet has made 28,439 starts and has 3,733 seconds, 3,781 third place finishes and career earnings of more than $22 million.
Shenandoah Downs has three weeks remaining in its fall season. Racing continues this coming Saturday & Sunday (Oct. 11 & 12), with cards both days starting at 1:05 p.m.. Virginia Breeders elimination for two-year-olds begin this weekend with trotters on Saturday and pacers on Sunday. The first 500 fans on Saturday will receive a William Carter Bobblehead. The 21-year-old reinsman got his first driving win ever at the Woodstock oval. Details are at shenandoahdowns.com.
(with files from Shenandoah)