Lou Brissie ran down the early leader and heavy favorite, Twelve Pack Shelly, in the stretch and then pulled away on the outside to a 1 ½-length victory in the $110,300 Kentucky Juvenile Stakes (gr. III) (VIDEO) April 30 at Churchill Downs.
Boys At Tosconova finished second, a neck in front of the fading Twelve Pack Shelly, who set early fractions of :21.92 and 45.17 after taking the early lead from Nina Fever while running along the rail.
It was the second victory in as many career races for Lou Brissie, a 2-year-old chestnut son of Limehouse . Sweeping to the lead inside the eighth pole, Lou Brissis completed five furlongs in :57.80 while being ridden by John Velazquez.
"I didn’t want to be too far back and have too much dirt hitting him and get discouraged," Velazquez said. "Once I got him in the clear and the five-sixteenths pole, he got into a good rhythm and I just kept him there. Down the lane I just had to keep him mind on running. The way his personality is, in the future going longer will be better.”
Lou Brissie broke his maiden April 15 over Keeneland’s synthetic Polytrack surface, defeating No More Yogi's by three-quarters of a length in the 4 1/2-furlong race. Dogwood Stable, which owns Lou Brissie, purchased him for $100,000 from Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, at the 2009 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July select yearling auction. Dogwood raced the colt’s sire, a grade II winner.
Lou Brissie, who was the Kentucky Juvenile's third betting choice and ran in fourth during the race's opening stages, paid $9.40, $4.80, and $2.80. Boys At Tosconova returned $7.20 and $3.00 while Twelve Pack Shelly paid $2.40.
Wetzel finished fourth, 2 1/2 lengths behind Twelve Pack Shelly and a head in front of Nina Fever, who was last. Final Mesa, Saturday Dance, The Freak and Weekend Wildcat scratched.
Bred in Kentucky by Gulf Coast Farms and trained by Neil Howard, Lou Brissie is out of the Forest Wildcat mare Fearless Wildcat and is a half brother to Fearless Cowboy (by El Corredor), who captured the 2009 Colin Stakes at Woodbine.
This was Howard’s third victory in the Kentucky Juvenile, having saddled Island Escape to victory in 1988 and Summer Squall, also owned by Dogwood, in 1989.
“That’s what they do at Dogwood, they spend the time with them," Howard said. "He acts so much more mature than what he is. He’s a very mature acting kind of horse."
Gulf Coast is the breeder of two scheduled starters – morning line favorite Lookin At Lucky and Conveyance – in the May 1 Kentucky Derby Presented By Yum! Brands (gr. I).
The Kentucky Juvenile was the seventh race on the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) day card.