Gordon Waterstone

Lexington, KY — A son of Sweet Lou out of the 2010 3-year-old filly Pacer of the Year Put On A Show, It’s My Show has the pedigree to be a champion.

The 2-year-old half-brother to 2019 Meadowlands Pace champion Best In Show has made just three career starts thus far, but after a fourth and second in a pair of Kentucky Sires Stakes Championship Series preliminaries at The Red Mile earlier this month, the Linda Toscano trainee appears ready to find the winner’s circle.

On Sunday (Aug. 28), It’s My Show will start from post three in the third KYSS Championship Series leg (race seven). The homebred of owners Richard Young and Joanne Young will be driven by Yannick Gingras. It’s My Show is listed as the 5-2 second choice on the morning line in the $80,000 contest for freshman male pacers, behind the 9-5 favorite Blue Lou, who starts from the outside post five in the compact field with driver Andrew McCarthy.

Blue Lou won the lone opening-round KYSS leg in 1:52. Confederate, who captured the second KYSS preliminary in 1:49.3, is sitting this week out.

After a third and first (a 1:55.2 effort) in a pair of June 2-year-old races at The Meadowlands, It’s My Show finished a late-closing second in a $55,006 Pennsylvania Sires Stakes division on July 2 at The Meadows. The colt didn’t make his next appearance until July 30 in a qualifying race at The Meadowlands where he finished third.

“I talked his owners into not doing Pennsylvania,” explained Toscano of the four-week absence from racing. “He’s eligible to everything and had got a little sick. I used that as the excuse I needed as I really didn’t want to do the Pennsylvania thing with him. I’ve done it now with some and the shipping in the extreme heat we’ve had this year takes a toll on them.

“He went to that first race and was going to miss the second race, and then we decided we’d just take him to Kentucky and finish it there. The beauty of the Kentucky races is that you don’t have to leave, you just have to be there. I figured I’d make a push and do it that way.”

Toscano had entrusted the drive behind It’s My Show to Scott Zeron, but when the driver got hurt in an early July race accident that has left him sidelined for a while, she turned first to Gingras for the KYSS races.

“It’s been a little bit of a struggle because when (Zeron) got hurt it came at the worst possible time for him and also for me because everybody had their horses at that point,” said Toscano. “I got very lucky that Yannick didn’t have anything in that division and he’s been able to go with him and a few of my others.”

Toscano said she was pleased with both of It’s My Show’s Red Mile efforts.

“I really was pleased,” said Toscano, who also trained Best Of Show to his Meadowlands Pace score three years ago for the Youngs. “He’s playing a little bit of catch-up and Yannick gave him a really good trip the first week. He got caught in and had pace right to the wire.

“Last week was a good mile and I was happy that he gritted it out to be second.”

Toscano believes the sky could be the limit for her colt.

“I think he’s going to get better,” she said. “He’s a beautiful-gaited horse and has a good attitude. I’ve been happy with him and like the colt. He’s eligible to everything from here on in. He has to now rise to the occasion.”

Also on the 12-race card that gets underway at 1 p.m. on Sunday is a lone $80,000 KYSS Championship Series division for 3-year-old male trotters (race 11), featuring the return of Rebuff. Click here for more information on that race.