Hinsdale, IL — When 3-year-old ICF fillies line up in next week’s Illinois State Fair Colt Stakes showdowns in their respective divisions they can expect to face strong double-barreled opposition from horses in the barns of trainers Jamaica Patton and Curt Grummel.
Both Illinois trainers had their sophomore fillies come away with the first place finishes in last week’s Illinois bred sophomore stakes at Du Quoin, giving Patton and Grummel division sweeps.
Patton saw his Somestarsomewhere filly pacer Hypeyourbestieup make it four wins in a row in her $25,125 Time Dancer after Jamaica’s Time To Roll filly Adalecia pulled off an upset at 8-1 odds in the first Time Dancer split. Both fillies were aptly driven by Travis Seekman and paced new lifetime marks of 1:52.1 and 1:52.3, respectively.
“Hypeyourbestieup has pretty much dominated her filly pacing division year,” said Jamaica. “She’s really good right now and I’m not surprised at Adalecia’s win either. She’s becoming the horse that I thought she would be.
“She matured and her record is even better than it might look. Earlier she just had a lot of bad racing luck. Hopefully that’s behind her. She raced very well in her previous start when she got nosed out at the wire.”
In her Aug. 10 ISFCS elimination, she was sent out from the seven-slot in an eight-horse field and was parked out to a :26.4 first quarter that took enough out of her to barely give it up in the lane to Dandy’s Ms Swifty in a 1:53.4 mile.
Adalecia is a homebred for Ron Phillips, who shares ownership of the filly with Patton and Ryan Spearie.
Grummel’s filly trotters Calypso (Kyle Wilfong) and Whiskey Lou (Casey Leonard) swept Du Quoin’s Windy Skeeter stakes. Both are daughters of top Illinois trotting stallion Lou’s Legacy.
Owned by her breeder Dr. Patrick Graham, Calypso Moon’s victory was her first of the year although she had picked up purse checks in her previous six outings, some against her more illustrious stablemate Whiskey Lou, owned by Randy Wilt, also her breeder.
Whiskey Lou didn’t just win her Windy Skeeter, she did it by almost 15 lengths and remains unbeaten in her second season. The filly is currently on a nine-race winning streak. She’s the reigning division champion and well on her way to making it back-to-back titles.
Curt was also in the winner’s circle a third time on Du Quoin’s “Championship Day” when Sunburnt Silver (Casey Leonard) won his $35,125 division of the Governor’s Cup for state-bred freshman male trotters. The Lou’s Legacy offspring is owned Curt, his brother Craig and their father Leo.
Of the 15 horses that won Du Quoin stake championships last week, 11 are trained by five conditioners — Curt Grummel, Jamaica Patton, Amy Husted, Steve Searle and Erv Miller. Single championships went to the barns of Tom Simmons, David Avenatti, Hart Walker and Rob Rittof.