‘Sweet’ homebreds lead Burke’s Championship hopefuls

Hightstown, NJ — Ron Burke and the Burke Brigade have always believed in Sweet Lou as a stallion, and Sweet Lou continues to repay their faith in him. Sunday’s $400,000 Kentucky Sire Stakes Championship Series harness racing finals provide examples.

Sweet Lou, trained by Burke during the horse’s Hall of Fame career, sired Burke Brigade homebreds Louprint and Looksgoodinloulou, who are the morning-line favorites in the finals for 2-year-old male pacers and 2-year-old female pacers, respectively.

Both accumulated the most points in their groups during the four preliminary legs of the series while another of the Burke Brigade homebreds, Sweet Ballad, finished second to Looksgoodinloulou among the freshman filly pacers.

Mark Weaver, who was among the breeders of all three horses, said the Burke Brigade made the best of a lull in Sweet Lou’s breeding career several years ago to increase their homebred stable.

“Breeders are fickle; it’s kind of ‘what have you done for me lately’ with the stallions,” Weaver said. “With Sweet Lou, all the breeders rushed to him with the best mares possible his first year. Then he had a couple year gap. There was a year, we still own quite a bit of him, so we had extra breedings. Believing in the Lou, we bred all the mares we could. We didn’t want his breedings to go unused, so we bred mares that we had, or went out and bought mares, and ended up breeding 16.

“The result of that, three of them are in the finals. It’s really been a three- or four-year process for this to all come to fruition. It’s certainly paying dividends.”

Those dividends also include 2-year-old filly pacer Rose, who won the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes final on Sept. 5. Rose and Looksgoodinloulou are the season’s co-fastest freshman filly pacers, with a mark of 1:50.2.

“Ronnie thinks Looksgoodinloulou may be the best pacing filly we ever had,” Weaver said. “That says a lot when we’ve had horses like (two-time Dan Patch Award winner) Warrawee Ubeaut and some of the other ones.”

Looksgoodinloulou has won two of three races this season. She heads to the KYSS final off an eighth-place finish on Sept. 1 but started from post 10 after missing the prior leg of the series while dealing with a minor issue.

“She basically had everything go wrong that could go wrong,” Weaver said. “But she trained this week better than any horse we have. We expect that she will be back to the filly we think she is.”

Looksgoodinloulou, out of the mare Looksgoodinaromper, will start from post seven with driver Yannick Gingras and is 2-1 on the morning line. Sweet Ballad, out of the mare Write Me A Song, has a win and three seconds in six starts. She leaves from post two with driver David Miller and is 8-1.

Louprint is the even-money favorite in the final for the freshman boys. The colt, out of the mare Rockin Racer (purchased by Weaver on onGait for around $10,000 as one of the additional broodmares for Sweet Lou), is a neck from being unbeaten in six races this season. He will leave from post five in a field of five, with Ronnie Wrenn Jr. in the sulky.

His stablemate Sippinonsearoc, a son of Downbytheseaside-Queen Ann M, is the 9-5 second choice. He has won four of six races, including a 1:48.2 score that made him history’s fastest 2-year-old pacer, and will leave from post three with Gingras.

“I think Louprint seems pretty special at this point,” Weaver said. “And Sippinonsearoc has been super. He’s been a little bit of a work in progress. He maybe likes to go faster than what we would like early in the mile, so we’re still tinkering with him. But he trained really well Thursday.”

Marcus Melander also will send out two morning-line favorites in Sunday’s championships.

Luna Lovegood is the 9-5 choice in the final for 2-year-old female trotters. The daughter of Gimpanzee-Southwind Venus has won three of four races this season, all in KYSS action. Her loss came in her second start when she made an interference break in the first turn after leaving from the second tier in a 12-horse field.

Date Night Hanover, a returning KYSS champion, is the 9-5 favorite in the final for 3-year-old female trotters. The daughter of Chapter Seven-Don’t Wait Up has two wins and a second in three KYSS starts this year. For the season, she has hit the board in eight of 11 races, winning three.

Dexter Dunn will drive both fillies for Melander.

Another returning KYSS champ, Karl, is the 7-5 favorite in the final for 3-year-old male trotters. Trained by Nancy Takter and driven by Gingras, the son of Tactical Landing-Avalicious brings a five-race win streak into Sunday, with the victories including the Hambletonian and three KYSS preliminary rounds. The colt has hit the board in all 20 career starts, winning 18 and earning $1.91 million.

Nuclear is the 2-1 favorite in the final for 3-year-old male pacers, which also includes returning champ Better Is Nice. Nuclear, a son of Always B Miki-Can’tgetenuffofyou trained by Joe Holloway, has a win, two seconds and a third in the series. He will have Dunn in the sulky.

The 8-5 favorite in the final for 3-year-old female pacers is Its A Love Thing. The daughter of Bettor’s Delight-Love For Sail won her only start in KYSS action this year and also counts the Fan Hanover Stakes and Jerry Silverman Memorial among her seven triumphs in nine races this season. James MacDonald will drive the filly for trainer David Menary. The field also includes returning KYSS champ Geocentric.

Go Dog Go is the 3-1 favorite in the final for 2-year-old male trotters. The son of Greenshoe-Primary Target has two wins and a second in four starts this season for trainer Carter Pinske and driver Todd McCarthy.

Racing begins at 5:05 p.m. (EDT) Sunday at the Red Mile. A free program for Sunday’s card can be found here. Free daily programs can be found at the track’s website (scroll down to September dates).

For complete race entries, click here: US Trotting entries.

by Ken Weingartner, for the USTA