by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — He was marked off in the sales catalog, but once Brian Brown got a good look at him, he wasn’t exactly sold on purchasing Limelight Beach.

“He was recommended to us by one of my other owners and his present owners now really liked him,” said Brown. “But when we went and looked at him he had a foot that stuck right out and I was worried about him hitting his knee. Then we took a look at his video and it seemed like that foot was winging out instead of in (while he was moving).

“The owners still really liked him and we thought we could get a good price for a Somebeachsomewhere because of the foot, so we took a chance on him. It’s not often you can get a Somebeachsomewhere for $25,000.”

Chris Gooden photo

Limelight Beach has won his last four starts and has banked $107,592 this year.

A son of the aforementioned stallion and the Badlands Hanover mare Benear, who collected more than $300,000 during her racing career, Limelight Beach is owned by James Stambaugh, Milton Leeman and Charles Wingfield and was brought to Brown’s barn after last year’s Standardbred Horse Sale.

In five trips to the post, the gelding has amassed $107,592 in purse money in conjunction with four victories and one fifth place finish, which was in his career debut on June 30 at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in a $30,000 Pennsylvania All Stars race.

Limelight Beach’s next engagement was a 1:52 maiden-breaking score in a $53,881 Pennsylvania Sire Stake at The Meadows on July 9, then another win under the same conditions, with a slightly larger purse ($69,153) at Pocono on July 17, and then back to The Meadows for a 1:54.1 score in a $20,000 division of the Arden Downs on July 27. His most recent win came with a 1:53.1 mile on Aug. 4 at Harrah’s Philadelphia in another $69,152 Pennsylvania Sire Stake contest.

“David Miller has been driving him for us and we have to kind of keep him with other horses,” Brown said. “He will open up and then kind of wait on them. That’s what he did in his last race. He was up by five and then he slowed down, but as soon as they came to him he started back up again.

“I broke and trained Won The West and I was reminded that he did the same thing before coming around. We are hoping this happens with him.”

Although his right front foot does still appear visibly out of line, Limelight Beach has experienced no issues with the problem and only wore new boots in his last start for precautionary measures.

“I always put knee boots on horses when I race them at Chester because they always seem to hit their knees going into the first turn and coming out of the last one,” Brown said. “Otherwise he has never needed them.”

Once the colt started to train, Brown was pleased by how much speed he possessed and is extremely glad they decided to take a chance on him.

“You just never know how these things will turn out, but the foot definitely is going to be something we will always have to deal with,” he said. “It’s a conformation issue and it is not going away.”

For the rest of this year’s campaign Limelight Beach will continue to participate in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes company and then travel to Lexington within the next six weeks or so.

“I think we will make the PA Sire Stakes final,” Brown said. “We would like to race him at Delaware because that’s home for us, but I don’t think we can because the final is only like six days before the race at Delaware. After that he has two races in Lexington and then he’s done for the year.”