Hinsdale, IL — As we await today’s draw for Monday’s opening program for the Du Quoin State Fair meet and its 2- and 3-year-old ICF stake events, let’s catch up on some Illinois racing happenings.

Last season’s ICF freshman filly champion trotter Marvelous Mystery appears to be done for this year.

The filly Marvelous Mystery (Curt Grummel) is shown going past last year’s freshman colt titleholder Goomster. Patsy Fryman Photography.

“She has a little piece of her sesamoid broken and she most likely won’t be racing anymore this year,” said her trainer and co-owner Curt Grummel.

Marvelous Mystery was to race at Springfield in the Aug. 15 ISFCS championship for 3-year-old trotters that got rained out, along with all the other finals. However, Grummel scratched her before the Illinois State Fair championships were rescheduled to Sunday (Sept. 10) at Hawthorne.

And don’t look for her illustrious stablemate Funky Wiggle any time soon either. The news wasn’t good on the defending Illinois Harness Horse of the Year’s situation.

“Funky Wiggle has been battling lameness problems,” continued Curt. “It flared up again. She had it back when she was two and three as well. We’ll take it slow to get her healthy again.”

A Dreary Month: A rainy August has brought about a lengthy absence of racing in the state, except for last weekend’s County Fair events at Anna and Morrison, placing many of our best 2- and 3-year-old horses on the sidelines. In some instances, it’ll be four weeks in between starts.

That won’t be the case for a trio of well-regarded pacers from the Amy Husted Stable.

Fox Valley Landen, the stable’s talented 3-year-old pacer, stayed sharp in a qualifying race last Saturday at Hoosier Park. The Somestarsomewhere gelding easily won his qualifier in a speedy time of 1:51.4, coming home in :26.4 with Kyle Husted in the bike.

Fox Valley Landen will bring a six-racing winning streak into the upcoming Dudley Hanover stake at the Du Quoin State Fair.

His 2-year-old filly stablemates Chickabell (Kyle Husted) and Fox Valley Sadie were also busy over the weekend. Chickabell breezed in her 1:54.3 winning qualifier (:28.1 last panel) by 4-1/2 lengths ahead of the barn’s second place finisher Fox Valley Sadie (Ricky Macomber Jr.) who paced in 1:55.2.

Avenatti Brothers on Rise: The Chrisman, Ill., Avenatti brothers, Matt, and Wyatt, are undoubtedly enjoying this summer while plugging away at their craft.

The 30-year-old Matt is doing exceptionally well in both the trainer and driver categories. Matt currently sports a very solid UTR of .377 and has a robust driver rating of .356. He’s a cinch to surpass his previous highs in races and money won in both groupings.

Wyatt, three years younger than his brother, has concentrated on just driving and is having a career year. His UDR is at a lofty .342 and Wyatt’s current 68 dash winners is a new high and there’s four-plus months left of racing in Illinois. He’ll also blow by last year’s money won total of $279,697 by a large margin. He’s presently only $41,368 beneath it.

The brothers are sons of long-time Illinois based horseman David Avenatti.