Hinsdale, IL — Whatever the endeavor, a three-peat is certainly quite an achievement. Last weekend trainer Curt Grummel was at the annual Illinois Standardbred Banquet in Springfield, Ill., to accept the award for star distaffer Whiskey Lou who was honored as the 2024 ICF 3-year-old Filly Trotter of the Year.
It was the third consecutive year that division honor went to a sophomore trotting filly from the Grummel stable. The first to get the coveted award was Funky Wiggle in 2022, who went on to be feted as the Illinois Harness Horse of the Year. A season later Marvelous Mystery followed in the hoof steps of her renowned stablemate when she was named the best in the division.
All three of Curt’s filly trotting champions are daughters of Lou’s Legacy, Illinois’ perennial top trotting sire who was also honored at the banquet.
Whiskey Lou’s accomplishment came as no surprise to anyone in the Illinois harness racing community. She simply dominated her division, winning 13 of 14 starts and hauling in $127,083 for her owner and breeder Randy Witt of Savannah, Mo.
Only bad racing luck kept her from an opportunity at a perfect winning season. In the ISFCS stake race in early August, Whiskey Lou was knocked off stride at the start by a foe and did well to come back to be fourth.
She ended her sophomore campaign with a triumph on Hawthorne’s Night of Champions in the $109,658 Beulah Dygert final with her regular driver Casey Leonard.
Whiskey Lou is back in training and expected to return in racing form by mid-April according to her trainer. Will she be going against older horses in Illinois Opens?
“I like to think so,” said Grummel. “If all goes well, there will be times where she will have to compete against her stablemate Marvelous Mystery, who came back strong in the latter part of last year’s racing season. She chipped a bone earlier.”
Marvelous Mystery had only nine trips to the starting gate as a 4-year-old, but she made the most of them, four times a winner, including the $80,000 Carl Becker Memorial on the Night of Champions with Marcus Miller in the bike. She also added a pair of seconds and earned over $66,000. Marvelous Mystery, with Marcus in the bike, trotted to a new lifetime mark of 1:52.3 at Du Quoin last August in the ICF Older Mare final and bested her celebrated stablemate Funky Wiggle by a half-length.
“She’s a fast trotter,” added Grummel.
Don’t look for Funky Wiggle on the racetrack this year. “It’s time for her to be a mom,” revealed her trainer.
After brilliant campaigns as a 2- and 3-year-old where she finished first in 17 of 28 tries, Funky Wiggle took in over $260,000 for her owner and breeder Patrick Graham. She won back-to-back Night of Champions showdowns, before lameness cut her racing career short. She made just five starts in 2023 and only two last year.
“Her lameness problems flared up again and we decided it was time to stop with her as a racehorse and start her new career as a broodmare,” said Grummel.
While Funky Wiggle’s days of racing are behind her, most followers of the Illinois Standardbred circuit will not forget her dazzling 1:51.4 winning mile in the summer of 2022 at Du Quoin that shattered the ICF record for 3-year-old filly trotters.
Your author won’t.