by Kimberly Rinker, USTA Web Newsroom Correspondent

Crete, IL — Trainer Roger Welch has two Orange & Blue Championships to his credit and nine overall Super Night crowns. The 50-year-old Beecher, Ill., resident is hoping that his trio of 2-year-old pacing colts will follow in the footsteps of his prior freshman colt winners Mini Me and Garfunkel.

Welch will harness his three freshman pacers in the $187,000 Orange & Blue Final on Illinois’ Super Night (Saturday, Sept. 13), which features eight championship events for Illinois-breds of both gaits.

Interestingly, all three of Welch’s protégé’s are by sire Sportsmaster and all are co-owned by the trainer, along with members of the De Long family of Wisconsin and Illinois.

“Of the three colts, whoever gets the best trip can win the race,” Welch laughed. “I’m not sure who’s the standout among them; they’re just three good peas in a pod.”

Successful peas at that, as collectively, these three freshmen pacers have amassed $103,753 in their brief careers for Welch. All three were purchased by William C. (Bo) De Long and William (Pat) De Long and taken to their Wisconsin farm to be broken and trained over the winter. The De Longs brought the horses down at different times earlier in the season for Welch to prepare for their freshman summer contests.

“We’ve all been friends a long time, and we shuffle horses back and forth between their farm in Wisconsin and my stable at Balmoral,” Roger revealed.

Balmoral Park photo

Earndawg captured his $15,000 Orange & Blue elim in a career best 1:54.

Earndawg, the least raced of Welch’s three youngsters, captured his $15,000 Orange & Blue elim in a career best 1:54 with driver Todd Warren at the helm, overpowering stablemate Rockin Cassinova by 1-1/2 lengths.

“Earndawg is named after Ernie, one of his co-owners (Earnie Miller) and a longtime friend of the De Longs,” Welch explained. “This colt initially was very spooky — he was scared to death of everything and it took us a lot of work to get him to go around the track and pace a flat mile.”

Purchased for $35,000 at the 2013 Walker Standardbred Sale, Earndawg wears a blind bridle with an elaborately-designed fly screen to help keep the colt calm, Roger explained. The trainer also jogged and trained the nervous gelding behind another horse every time he went onto the track in the beginning months, to get him used to sounds, and to having dirt thrown up in his face, when he first arrived at Balmoral.

“If a horse flicked his tail he’d throw his head up,” Welch said. “(Driver) Pat Curtin really helped me in the beginning with this colt, teaching him how to race and being very patient with him. The colt wouldn’t be where he is today if Pat hadn’t been so helpful with him.”

Earndawg is a striking bay who has earned $32,708 to date from three wins, two seconds and two thirds in nine starts. He’s the sixth of seven foals out of the Western Hanover mare Pacific Sister K 4,1:54 ($107,550) and is a full brother to 17-race winner Mystical MJ p,3,1:51.1 ($275,219). He’s also a half-brother to 31-race winner Doubleshotascotch p,4,1:51f ($692,491).

Stablemate Rockin Cassinova has had the most starts this season of any of Welch’s young charges. The big bay gelding — who was a $15,000 yearling purchase at the 2013 Walker Standardbred Sale — got a lot of experience racing over the Illinois county fairs this past summer, with 10 of his 12 starts coming over the dusty half-milers.

“He made just over $20,000 racing at the county fairs,” Roger explained. “At his last fair, at Morrison, Illinois, he finished third in a colt stake and came up sick, so they brought him to me to get him healthy and to see if he was going to be good enough for Super Night, which obviously, he was. He’s right on schedule for a big performance.”

With $27,109 in earnings, Rockin Cassinova has seven county fair and one pari-mutuel victory to his credit in 12 starts, with three seconds and one third. Born April 23, 2012 at North Henderson, Ill., Rockin Cassinova is the seventh of eight foals out of the Broadway Express mare Rock N Roan p,3,1:56.4 ($14,074).

He is a full brother to Just By Design p,1:51.4 ($272,095) and Schmatie p,3,1:53.3s ($107,285 — both of whom competed in a pair of $15,000 Lorna Propes elims, with Just By Design winning easily in 1:52.3 for Dave Magee and trainer Mike Brink; and Schmatie finishing a disappointing sixth in her division.

The last but not least of this formadible trio is King Of The Swamp, who finished second by a nose in 1:55.1 in the second Orange & Blue elimination to a former Welch-trainee, Lucpark, who now hails from the Erv Miller Stable.

“King raced well in his elim,” Roger noted. “The other horse got a suck-along trip to just get up and beat him. Funny, but when I was training these horses down, Lucpark was the better horse at the time.”

King Of The Swamp has three wins, two seconds and three thirds in nine starts this season, with earnings of $43,936. He was the most expensive yearling of the three, with an $85,000 price tag garnered from the 2013 Walker Standardbred Sale.

“This horse is a full brother to He’s So Hot, p,3,1:50.2 ($257,890), who was one of Bo De Long’s favorite horses,” Roger offered. “King resembles He’s So Hot and his conformation is flawless. Bo and Pat trained him over the winter and sent him to me early this Spring.

“King is real easy going in the barn and his nature reflects that on the racetrack, too,” Roger added. “He’s got very simple rigging and is a very handy horse. He can leave the gate like a rocket and then you can set him in a hole with just two fingers.”

King Of The Swamp is out of the Broadway Express mare She’s Redhot and began his career with a pair of Balmoral qualifiers in early June before finishing second in his pari-mutuel debut on June 28, pacing in 1:58.1 with Pat Curtin at the lines. He won his next start a week later, stopping the timer in 1:58.3 for driver Todd Warren. He was third on July 12 in a Balmoral overnight, then posted a winning 1:55 effort in a $10,000 Mini Me Stake elim at the Crete oval before capturing the $48,000 final in 1:55 on July 26. Both of those triumphs came in wire-to-wire fashion.

He was a solid third in the $34,900 Hanover Stake, clocked in 1:54, then finished fifth in his State Fair test, before being third again, this time in a Balmoral overnight on Aug. 30, just a week before his Orange & Blue elim.

If genetics play a role in Super Night Championship winners, then King Of The Swamp certainly has the credentials to wear the crown. His dam, She’s Redhot, finished on the board in Super Night Championships as both a 2- and 3-year-old. His granddam, Fox Valley Redhot, won the 1989 Orange & Blue Filly Pace Championship. His full brother, Hot N Sporty p,2,1:50.2, a 34-race winner of $519,769, won an Orange & Blue elim; his half-sister She’s So Hot (by Richess Hanover), earned $238,501 with a 2-year-old mark of 1:51.1, and was third in both her Orange & Blue elim and final.

Rival Lucpark, who won his Orange & Blue elim, besting the aforementioned King Of The Swamp, has put forth some sturdy performances in his brief career for trainer Erv Miller and owner Rocco Ruffolo. A $40,000 yearling purchase from the 2013 Walker Standardbred Sale, this son of Sportsmaster has amassed four wins and two thirds in just eight career starts, earning $47,980.

“He’s a fairly easy-going, nice colt to work with, but still kind of green mentally,” Erv assessed. “If he doesn’t get beat up a lot, he can be right there.”

Lucpark won the $40,000 Governor’s Cup at Du Quoin prior to his Orange & Blue elim triumph, timed in 1:54.3 over that downstate Illinois one-miler. He also won a $10,000 Mini Me elim in mid-July and a $4,000 Balmoral overnight on July 12 in 1:55.3.

The eighth foal out of the Cambest mare Treasure The Best p,2,1:58.3f ($3,500), Lucpark has half-siblings in Lightning Treasure (by Western Ideal) p,1:50f ($772,629); Real Special (by Real Desire) p,3,1:50.2f ($359,352); Lightning D Dube (by Western Ideal) p,3,1:52.1 ($99,819); Christians Grace (by Real Desire) p,1:52.4f ($81,985) and Shark Treasure (by Four Starzzz Shark) p,3,1:54f ($50,160).