Young hopes for best effort from It’s My Show

Harness racing owner and breeder Richard Young is hoping for a big effort from his million-dollar winning pacer, It’s My Show (Sweet Lou), in Sunday’s C$200,000 Prix d’Ete at the Hippodrome 3R (H3R) in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.

The Grand Circuit event for four-year-old pacers is the 10^th race feature and It’s My Show drew post position seven and is listed in the morning line at odds of 7/2 for first-time driver James MacDonald, the leading driver in all of Canada.

Young, who co-owns It’s My Show with his former wife, Joanne Young, was born in Montreal and his father Cecil and his brother, uncle Ted, would take him to the races at Blue Bonnets Raceway. He even remembers attending the very first Prix d’Ete (called the Prix d’Automne (Autumn Classic) back in 1966.

“It was 50 some years ago that I left Montreal,” Young explained. “Having made It’s My Show eligible to the Prix d’Ete months ago pushed me to want to race him in Quebec so I could visit Montreal. I ended up going to Montreal just last month and it’s there that I caught Covid.”

Young will have to watch It’s My Show race on his computer screen in Boca Raton, FL.

“I don’t have any symptoms except for a bad cough,” Young said. “But the doctors said I really should not fly and thus I am not able to go and see It’s My Show race. I am getting better, just a little weak.”

It was just last season that It’s My Show really put on a show as he won nine times, set a world record with a 1:46.4 mile and earned $1,199,584 in purse money. His career earnings at $1.44 million is nearly twice the amount of any of his rivals in the field. His biggest wins were in the North America Cup and the Little Brown Jug.

In 2024, It’s My Show has just one win in eight starts, but some game second place finishes. In his last start he was second by a neck in the $220,000 Sam McKee at The Meadowlands timed in 1:47.3.

“He started this season kinda slow,” Young said of It’s My Show. “He started off on Lasix because they saw a drop of blood. Actually, the week before the final of the Breeders Crown last year it was first noticed. So, we started him on Lasix this season and it was a bad decision.

“He raced poorly when he was on it,” Young explained. “So, they took him off it and he started to get better. In his last four starts he had a chance to win them all.

“He’s been parked a few times,” Young said. “And he still comes on good. “In his last start he goes to the front, gets the two-hole trip with some fast fractions, it looks like he is going to win and then two horses come off the rail and Rocknroll Runa A comes along, shoots up the rail and just beats us paying $138.00 to win.

“He also got beaten the same way by Act Fast a few starts back,” Young added. “And that one was 23-1. He has been a close second now to a $138 winner and a $40 winner, unbelievable.

Act Fast starts from post two with former Trois-Riviere’s resident Daniel Dube in the bike. In his last start Act Fast wired the field at MGM Northfield Park half mile in 1:50.2 winning the $100,000 Myron Charma Invitational Pace.

Young feels It’s My Show is ready for Sunday’s race.

“He’s better, but we are on a half mile track with another bad post,” Young stated. “I am more worried about the post than anything else. It is what it is.

“I think he’s back now.” Young said. “We have had to race against good older horses, and he’s had some bad racing luck but look at his last four starts and he has been coming on in all of them. I think he is as good as he can be right now.”

This will also be the first time that James MacDonald has driven It’s My Show.

“No one else has driven It’s My Show the last two years except for Scott Zeron,” Young explained. “Zeron has a horse in Kentucky racing on Sunday and it’s his horse, so he wants to drive there. “If I am gonna find a catch-driver, I found the one I wanted the most (James MacDonald).”

What was It’s My Show’s best performance on the racetrack?

“I think his best race was the Jug,” Young said. “Once you are drawing a middle post in the second heat, horses don’t win from those positions in the Jug. They got to be right up front. You can’t do it from second or third over. We got lucky, we were following a horse that was live and that’s what you need sometimes, a little luck.

“Coming off a winless season at age 2,” Young added. “And being that good at age 3 was somewhat of a surprise. We always liked him. We don’t know what happened to him at 2, and I am sure that gelding him at the end of the season played a role in getting him to perform much better.”

Who does Young feel is It’s My Show’s main competition in the Prix d’Ete?

“Act Fast is the obvious main horse in the race,” Young said. “He is very sharp and drew very well. Huntinthelastdolar (post 4) has been good, not that good as of late, but those are the two horses I fear the most in the race. The one I really worry about the most is mine.

“If we race the way we’re supposed to race,” Young added. “And we’re not caught first-over the entire mile, that kinda thing, then I think we have the horse that should win.”

Young had his choices of where to race It’s My Show this weekend.

“I’m encouraged for this race,” Young said. “We had options. We could have gone to Pocono Saturday, but I picked Trois-Rivieres because of my past history with racing in Montreal. I was at Blue Bonnets in 1966 for the first Prix d’Ete. I saw Bret Hanover win it and many other champions in the early years. The rafters were filled with 15,000 plus people coming out for the race.

The racing schedule has gotten busy for It’s My Show and it’s all on the prestigious Grand Circuit.

“He’s got a pretty busy schedule right now,” Young explained. “He got a week off after Hambletonian Day. Now he races Sunday in the Prix d’Ete, then off to Mohawk Park for the elims and hopefully the final of the Canadian Pacing Derby, and of course down the road, the Breeders Crown.”

Here is the field for the $200,000 Prix d’Ete on Sunday.

HD   Post   Name   Sire   Driver  Trainer   M/L Odds

1       (pp2) ACT FAST (Downbytheseaside)  Daniel Dube – Ron Burke 3-1

1A    (pp6) TIP TOP CAT (Always B Miki) Stephane Brosseau – Ron Burke  3-1

2       (pp1) EL REY (Captaintreacherous)  Louis-Philippe Roy – Andrew Harris 4-1

3        (pp3) REDWOOD HANOVER (Stay Hungry) Jonathan Drury – Anthony Beaton  6-1

4       (pp4) Huntinthelastdolar (Huntsville) Doug McNair – Per Engblom  5/2

5       (pp5) NO CONTROL (Control The Moment)  Jody Jamieson  – Tan Micallef  5-1

6        (pp7) IT’S MY SHOW (Sweet Lou) James MacDonald – Linda Toscano  7/2

7       (pp8) LIGHT THE TORCH (Always B Miki) Pascal Berube – Marc-Andre Simoneau 10-1

First race post time on Sunday for the 12-race card is 12:00 noon. For more information and free race programs, visit here.

by Steve Wolf, for the Quebec Jockey Club