Dennis Garner’s streaking two-year-old trotter Deebo (Travis Seekman) guns for her fifth consecutive victory and his sixth in seven lifetime starts Thursday at Springfield. (Terry Young Photo)

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA 

There are plenty of youngsters, both pacers and trotters, prepping Thursday or Friday afternoon for the upcoming ICF stakes being offered at the Springfield State Fair, where at long last some five figure events will have a crooked number going first.

Thursday’s card is fully loaded with 14 races, but that program will take a back seat to Friday’s when, get this, 20 races will go postward. The first post has been moved up to 11 am both day and tomorrow because of the expected extreme heat conditions.

One of the early favorites in the Illinois bred male trotting division is Dennis Garner’s Deebo. While it’s much too early to try and compare the Cassis offspring to his champion stablemate Goomster, Deebo has already made it known that he’s a prominent player in his division.

Deebo carries a four-race winning streak into Thursday’s ninth race with regular driver Travis Seekman and he’s 5-for-6 in his young career. His lone loss was a close second place finish back on June 3rd.

“He’s really going good,” said trainer and owner Dennis Gardner of West Salem, Illinois. “He really has surprised me. He just keeps getting better and better.”

The draw certainly went Deebo’s way in the seven-horse field. The talented youngster secured the rail, so another journey on or very close to the front seems very likely.

“Deebo is just a nice, consistent young horse,” continued Dennis. “He loves his job and like I said, he just keeps getting better at it.”

Looking to put halt to Deebo’s winning streak are Go Max Go (Jamaica Patton), Fox Valley Parker (Gary Rath), Shady Maple Alstar (Juan Franco), El Champee’soon (Russel Power), Gritty Gator (Kyle Husted), and Lous Private Eye (Casey Leonard).

The Herman Wheeler trained Shady Maple Alstar has been the runner-up to Deebo the last two times they’ve met.

Goomster, last season’s ICF two-year-old colt trotting champion, is taking the week off and is being pointed for Springfield State Fair. “He’s been really good,” said Dennis. “I’m just trying to keep him healthy. It’s a long season and I want him good when the Hawthorne stakes roll around later.”

She’s Sparkling: Rick Schrock’s Radiant Diamond (Travis Seekman), fresh off last week’s notable victory over the 2022 division champion Marvelous Mystery, heads up Thursday’s featured third race trot for ICF three-year-olds.

With Marvelous Mystery taking this week off, Radiant Diamond (PP 5) aims for her third consecutive triumph against the ICF quartet comprised of Lou Sangreal (Wyatt Avenatti), Dawn Of Creation (Juan Franco), Zena Lou (Casey Leonard), and Daisy’s Duchess (Cordarius Stewart).

 Easy Pickings: Back in her home state is the reigning ICF pacing mare champion Fox Valley Exploit (Kyle Husted). The pride of the Amy Husted stable drops all the way down to a non-winner of $2,500 (ICF $3,125) in the last four distaff conditioned event (race eight).

With Trent Stohler’s Cult Icon, a 1:51.1 winner earlier this season at Hoosier Park scratched out of the race, Fox Valley Exploit should get back on the winning track against a soft field of five other mares and rack up career victory No. 34.

 Kudos to Triple ZZZ: Congratulations go out to Triple ZZZ Stable’s He’zzz A Wise Sky and his trainer John Filomeno after making Illinois proud with a victory in last Sunday’s $50,000 Dan Patch Free For All at Running Aces. The six-year-old ICF pacer sped to a front-stepping 1:50.1 winning mile with driver Jacob Cutting.