by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — Her last engagement resulted in a second place finish in the $42,250 Madison County Stake at Hoosier Park on Oct. 26, but Petticoat Affair, the Bluegrass State’s 2-year-old trotting filly champion, is still enjoying her winter vacation.

This situation, however, is not the result of a setback in her training for this year’s campaign, rather it is because of it.

“She isn’t even in the barn yet,” said Bobby Brower, the filly’s conditioner and co-owner. “We are not going to start with her until around July 1 in a race at Hoosier Park. Our goal is the Kentucky program since she was so dominant there last year. Also, she did have kind of an issue with her ankles in the fall, so we did some work on them when we were in Lexington, like going in and cleaning them up to make sure she didn’t have any problems in the future.”

Balmoral Park photo

Petticoat Affair hit the board in eight of nine starts as a freshman and banked $196,286.

Petticoat Affair is a daughter of Valley Victor and the Conway Hall mare Katie Hall. She is also co-owned by Mystical Marker Farms and is the third foal from her dam. Her older siblings, both by Chip Chip Hooray, are Hooray Katie 5,1:58.3 ($58,850) and Ms Wiggins 3,Q2:00.3h ($15,722) and her full sister, Katye’s On The Go, is a 2-year-old who also shares the same connections.

“Carter Duer was selling some yearlings right out of the field so I bought her privately from him,” Brower said. “I am from Kentucky but I train in Indiana, although we were looking for a Kentucky-sired filly because there were not very many nominated. Carter had a couple Valley Victor yearlings and I have had some Valley Victors before that were very nice. She was the one that appealed to me the most.”

During her first year of racing, Petticoat Affair compiled a record of 9-5-3-0, put $196,286 in the bank and established her lifetime speed standard of 1:56.4 when she captured the $250,000 Kentucky Sire Stakes final on Sept. 1.

She qualified twice before finishing fourth in her first start at Hoosier Park on July 16 in a $6,100 2-year-old race. Ten days later she was second under the same conditions and at the same oval before breaking her maiden on August 3 under the same circumstances.

It was then time to take her show on the road and her first evening of competition at The Red Mile was her second consecutive victory on August 11 in a $30,000 Kentucky Sire Stakes event. Petticoat Affair followed that up with another Kentucky Sire Stakes triumph on August 22 before annexing the final.

“From the word go, she was right on the trot and she had a lot of sense to her like a good horse is supposed to,” Brower said. “She just did everything so easily in her training miles, because she loved to trot and to do her work. She always had the ability to be a good filly, but you don’t ever know what will happen until they start racing.”

Once she accomplished her tasks in Lexington, Petticoat Affair traveled to the Delaware County Fairgrounds where she was beaten by just a neck in a $46,744 Standardbred contest on Jugette Day.

Then it was time to return to home court at Hoosier Park where Brower keeps the rest of his 40 head. She won two qualifiers there before collecting the winner’s share of the purse in the $27,950 Hanover Filly Stake at Balmoral Park on Oct. 13.

The filly completed her freshman season with another second in the aforementioned Madison County before commencing her winter vacation.

“It was very easy for her in Kentucky,” Brower said. “But she won the Hanover, was second in Delaware and in a couple of stakes so she showed she can go with some good ones.”

After she begins her 3-year-old season at Hoosier Park and starts her campaign to defend her crown in Kentucky, Petticoat Affair will return to Delaware. The plan then is to compete in the Matron, Moni Maker and Circle City following that trip if all remains well.

Since Brower and his partner Dennis Lakomy of Mystical Marker race quite a few young horses, the filly’s future as a mare is still up in the air.

“Dennis and I had another Valley Victor filly like her and our plan was to sell her at the Meadowlands Sale, which we did,” Brower said. “We did get a lot of money for her because you don’t see a lot of that line out there anymore.

“Out of all my horses only three are older than three, but I have a couple broodmares. Dennis is the same as me with the young horses and broodmares, but we are getting some good stallions on the trot here in Indiana to breed to.

“Also, there were never a lot of opportunities for older trotting mares to race except at The Meadows and I don’t give my horses to anyone else, but (Hoosier Park racing secretary) Scott Peine is writing trots for older mares that are worth $22,000, so there is a chance she could make some money if she comes out of this year good.

“With how things are going here in Indiana we now have options to keep her rather than sell her.”