It wasn't the Fourth of July but there were definitely some fireworks at The Red Mile on Sunday, Aug. 25. Freshman male pacer Louprint lit the match by soundly defeating the fastest two-year-old in history in the $108,108 third leg of the Kentucky Sire Stakes Championship Series. Karl followed up that impressive score with one of his own by establishing a new lifetime mark of 1:50.2 in the three-year-old trotting colt division of the same series.
The Ron Burke-trained Louprint (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) left the gate favoured over his world champion stablemate, Sippinonsearoc, in this event. The bettors got it right as the son of Sweet Lou-Rockin Racer placed his stablemate in the rearview mirror in a lifetime best 1:49.1. American Son (Dexter Dunn) was second and Fallout (Marvin Luna) was third.
Dunn sent American Son straight to the lead at the beginning of the mile with Louprint sitting pretty in the pocket. Dunn allowed his charge to click off fractions of :28, :54.4 and 1:23. Sippinonsearoc (Yannick Gingras) changed tactics and stalked from off the pace this week, watching the action from fifth early. When Wrenn Jr. asked Louprint to pick up the bit in the stretch, it was all systems go. The Burke trainee collected his fourth victory in five starts with a :26 final quarter panel to pace clear by 1-1/2 lengths on the line.
Competing as a homebred for Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi and Phillip Collura, Louprint has banked $163,838 in his brief career. The only blemish on his record was a neck loss to Sippinonsearoc in the first leg of this series. The colt paid $3.78 to win.
Karl (Gingras) made it look easy again as he sailed home in a new mark of 1:50.2 over Secret Agent Man (Andy Miller) and Hung Over (Dunn) in the third $80,000 Championship Series leg for sophomore male trotters.
Hung Over took the lead at the beginning of the mile with Karl in third but that was short-lived. The Hambletonian champion assumed command on the backstretch after a quarter in :27.1. The son of Tactical Landing-Avalicious glided around the Lexington oval with splits of :55.3 and 1:23.3. His last quarter-mile was in a geared down :26.4 to win by 1-3/4 lengths.
Karl (pictured above) is trained by Nancy Takter and was bred by Crawford Farms, who is co-owner along with his conditioner. The colt is also owned by Christina Takter, Black Horse Racing and Bender Sweden.Karl sports a resume of 19-17-1-1 and has banked more than $2.19 million. Karl paid $2.10 to win.
Takter and Gingras teamed up for another victory in the $40,541 Kentucky Commonwealth Series for two-year-old colts pacers additionally on the card with Fusion. The royally bred son of Always B Miki-Pure Country went first-over before besting the 27-1 upset-minded Higher Ground (Andy Miller) by a head in 1:51. Wavemaker (Scott Sezon) finished third. The win was a career best and second in three starts for the Diamond Creek homebred.
A head is all that would separate For July and Skydiver in the Commonwealth division for sophomore trotting colts as well. For July got the jump at the top of the lane with driver Mattias Melander on Skydiver (Gingras) to cross the wire first in 1:52. The win was a career best for the Lucas Wallin trainee, who has won four of nine on the season.
Three $20,270 divisions of the third leg of the Golden Rod Series were also held with Devious Mojito As (Tony Hall) scoring in 1:53.2 before Duke Of Walner (Scott Zeron) and Naked Cowboy (Andrew McCarthy) took the second and third divisions with matching 1:52.3 efforts.
There were also a pair of Golden Rod divisions for the two-year-old pacing colts with Caviart Act Too (Andrew McCarthy) and Delray Beach scoring in 1:52.1 and 1:51.2, respectively.
Racing continues at The Red Mile on Monday, Aug. 26 with an 18-race card set to get underway at 1 p.m.
(With files from The Red Mile)