Hinsdale, IL — Hawthorne’s downstate summer harness meeting shifts to Du Quoin Friday (June 28) with the far southern Illinois facility hosting this year’s crop of 2-year-olds for the first time. The card was originally scheduled for Thursday but was pushed back a day because of rain.

Most of Friday’s freshman combatants have a start or two or more on either County Fair tracks or at Springfield where the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s Spring Preview was contested a week ago. With the ICF 3-year-old Violets and Cardinal stakes raced the next day, the Spring Preview didn’t receive its deserved coverage.

The vast majority of Friday’s state-bred 2-year-old competitors did go postward in the Spring Previews and four of the youngsters — Littlebunnyfrufru, Shady Maple Becker, Fox Valley Brady, and Fox Valley Mygirl — made a winner’s circle stop.

Unbeaten Fox Valley Brady goes for his fourth consecutive win Friday at Du Quoin. Terry Young photo.

Bridget Williams’ Fox Valley Brady, driven by his trainer Kelcey Perymond, had the most impressive victory last week, picking up his third consecutive win despite being parked-out the entire 2:02.3 mile on a track listed “good.”

Fox Valley Brady was hustled out from the four post but Travis Seekman sent Frontier Macho out from the rail and took command. Fox Valley Brady ended up on the outside of the Dennis Gardner trained pacesetter through the entire race with fractions of :30, 1:01, and 1:31.2. Many of us expected Fox Valley Brady to peter-out in the stretch after racing, who knows, how many feet more?

However, the Can’t Afford It progeny had other ideas, and never gave up, gaining a three-quarter length triumph to stay unbeaten in his young career and make his $8,000 yearling price tag look like a quite a bargain for his owner.

Interestingly, on Friday Fox Valley Brady starts inside (post three) of Frontier Macho (post six) in race three and Shady Maple Becker (Wyatt Avenatti) is in a sweet spot with the pole position, to perhaps win right back.

Preview winner Littlebunnyfrufru (Cornelius Cavett) and Modern Luxury (Clay Simpson) tangle in race one with posts two and four, respectively. Toughestofthetough (Cordarius Stewart), just a nose short of Littlebunnyfrufru a week ago, has a big shot with the rail.

The Mike Brink stable’s What A Legacy drew poorly with the eight hole, however he is a well-regarded son of Lou’s Legacy. He sold for $34,000 at the 2023 Walker Sale, and was in contention when he went off stride in the Preview and had to settle for third.

Charles Arthur’s Fox Valley Mygirl heads up the fourth race juvenile filly pace. The Time To Roll filly went wire-to-wire in 2:00.4 for her owner, trainer, and driver last week, coming home in :28.2.

A strong challenger is the Amy Husted stable’s Captainess (Kyle Husted) with the one-slot. A $16,000 sale purchase, she is by Captain Trevor, whose first crop is competing this season. Captainess competed from inside a week ago and lacked racing room.

Speaking of the Husted stable, they have a strong one-two punch going to the gate in Friday’s seventh race, probably the best event on the ultra-long, four hour-plus 17-race program. Both Dandy’s MNM (Casey Leonard) and Fox Valley Exploit (Kyle Husted) are coming off convincing victories.

Dandy’s MNM won in 1:52 and could have gone faster, while her stablemate Fox Valley Exploit was more than five lengths the best in 1:53.4, the 7-year-old mare’s 37th career win as she slowly inches her way towards the half-million-dollar plateau in lifetime earnings. She’s at $485,346.

Illinois older mare champion Skeeter Machine (Travis Seekman) gets a very helpful post shift with the three-slot. The Nick Prather trainee left from the seven in her last start and needed a quick :26.3 first quarter to gain the front end but weakened in the late going,

Desired Luck (Cordarius Stewart), Fillys Revenge (Wyatt Avenatti) and Red Clover (Kelcey Perymond) round out the competitive field.