posted on 9/6/2012 2:26 pm
The best 2- and 3-year-old trotters and pacers in the Bluegrass State
will be out in full force at The Mile on Sunday, Sept. 9, as the historic Lexington racetrack hosts
the $2 million Kentucky Sires Stakes (KYSS) Championship Night.
Eight $250,000 finals will be featured on the race card, the richest
Sire Stakes events offered in the United States. Post time for the first
race is 7 p.m., with the track offering free admission and programs along with $1
beer.
The marquee event of the night is the 10th race, $250,000
contest for 3-year-old colt pacers, which features a match-up of two of the
continent’s premier pacers, North America Cup winner Thinking Out Loud
and Adios winner Bolt The Duer, the latter also the defending KYSS champion
from 2011.
The Pete Foley-trained Bolt The Duer swept both preliminary KYSS legs
in open-lengths fashion, while the Bob McIntosh-conditioned Thinking Out Loud
won his division of the opening round of KYSS. Thinking Out Loud skipped the
second week of preliminaries to instead race against older horses at Mohawk
Racetrack in Canada,
where he finished fourth.
Besides Bolt The Duer, the other three 2011 KYSS champions all have
made it back to the 2012 finals: Northern Miss Hall, who swept both
preliminaries this year, is the favorite in the 3-Year-Old Filly Trot; Prayer
Session, who has a first and second in the two KYSS openers, is the favorite in
the 3-Year-Old Colt Trot; and the 3-year-old filly pacer TB Beach Girl.
Walnut Hall Ltd.’s first-year trotting sire Deweycheatumnhowe has
a strong presence in the KYSS finals for 2-year-old trotters, with six of his daughters
and eight of his sons going postward in their respective contests.
