The Steve Searle trained Lous Private Eye (Casey Leonard) beat some of the top ICF freshman male trotters in his $25,000 Governor’s Cup division at Du Quoin. (Four Footed Fotos)

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

When the State Fairs meetings at Springfield and Du Quoin roll around in mid and late August, it’s the time you see some of the two-year-olds start to blossom and show their potential.

It was no different this year and among the state-bred freshman trotting division horses like Lous Esmeralda, Calypso Moon, Shady Maple Ace, Little Chipper, Lous Amazon, El Champee’onn, Stand By Your Man, and Lous Private Eye all showed their heels to their opponents with victories at the recent Du Quoin State Fair.

Some of those victories were expected, some weren’t.

One of the double-digit priced winners was Lous Private Eye, from the barn of trainer Steve Searle. A son of the reigning Illinois Trotting Sire of the Year Lou’s Legacy, the juvenile colt wasn’t a factor in his first four starts.

The freshman brother of the barn’s Illinois 2 and 3-year-old champion Lous Dobb turned his fortunes around at Mt Sterling Fair in early August when his regular driver Casey Leonard gave Lous Private Eye a pocket-trip and the colt ended up a nine-plus length winner in 2:02.1 on a “good” track over Deenbo, then the leader in the ICF juvenile trot grouping.

Despite the comfortable win, Lous Private Eye ($12.40) was, not surprisingly, the fourth choice in the betting last Tuesday in the $25,000 second split of the Governor’s Cup with the early leaders Shady Maple Star, Deenbo and Tru Cash all also going postward in the same event.

Casey raced Lou’s Private Eye inside in third most of the way only to find the Flacco Family Farms homebred shuffled to nest to last in the eight-horse field at the top of late. However once Casey found daylight in the lane, his colt powered past the field with a 28.1 last panel, more than one length the best at the end of a 1:58.2 mile over Shady Maple Alstar.

“I watched the replay the other day and I still thought Casey wasn’t going get out with the horse,” said Steve laughing. “I’m lucky to have patient owners like Flacco Family farms and a patient driver (Casey Leonard),” continued Searle. “I try to get my two-year-olds ready for mid-August like we did with Lou’s Private Eye. I think he has a chance to be a really good trotter. He raced well in his last start in July, and we took him to Mt Sterling for the Downstate Classic where he set a two-year-old trotting record (2:02.4) on a track that was listed ‘good.’

"I thought he would be good for Springfield but we got rained out. Casey did a great of a job driving him at Du Quoin. He told me the horse was full of trot coming down the stretch.”

Searle also sent out another offspring of Lou’s Legacy, Lous Amazon, a day alter at Du Quoin in a IDOA race, and she came up victorious in 2:01.3 with a 28.2 last quarter rally.

“She’s a big filly, that’s why we call her ‘Amazon’. She didn’t fare well at the fairs earlier because she doesn’t get around the half very well. We also have been patient with her and it’s starting to pay off.”

Early Sunday Post: We will get to see most of the two-year-old winners at Du Quoin this weekend on the all-weather mile track at Hawthorne. Opening night for the 2023 meet is Saturday and they’ll also race on Sunday night.

First post Saturday is 7:10 pm, however with 18 races thus Sunday the first race post has been moved up to 4:30 pm

Wyatt Red Hot: Wyatt Avenatti had himself one heck of driving night Wednesday on the Morrison, Illinois fair track. The 27-year-old Chrisman, Illinois resident drove eight horses and had seven first place finishes and was second best in the other.