Louise’s Legacy (Marcus Miller) comfortable win in Hawthorne’s Incredible Tillie stake vaulted him to the top of the 2024 ICF freshman trotting ranks (Four Footed Fotos)

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

 Who doesn’t enjoy a good rivalry in any sport? Most of us would agree it’s a fun thing to appreciate.

  We had one going last year in the ICF freshman colt and gelding trotting grouping between the eventual division champion Louise’s Legacy and his main challenger Sunburnt Silverado. We’re definitely are looking forward to round two of the competitive trotting confrontation.

  The two sons of the state’s leading Standardbred stallion Lou’s Legacy met nine times in their 2-year-old season with the Midwest Division of the Erv Miller stable victorious five times and the Curt Grummel trained Sunburnt Silverado proving best the other four occasions.

 Louise’s Legacy got better as the season went long, however Sunburnt Silverado had trouble staying on stride later in the year and dropped the last three decisions to his adversary, including the Kadabra Final on Hawthorne’s Night of Champions and the Cardinal stake that swayed voters to his chief rival when the balloting came around for division honors.

 We asked Curt Grummel about Sunburnt Silverado’s late season breaking problems.

 “I never did figure out for sure why he started making breaks.” said Curt. “It came late in the season, and it just might have been from colt soreness.

 “I’ve started back with him in the last 30 days or so. We haven’t gone much yet as far as speed, but you can see that he’s a stronger horse and a lot smarter. Being smarter is a big thing. He just wasn’t a smart horse as a 2-year-old.”

 Louise’s Legacy by began her racing career in Kentucky in mid-June at Oak Grove and picked up third place checks with Marcs Miller at his lines in a pair of $40,000 KYSS stake events and again in its $100,000 championship for Geis Enterprises LLC of Chicago and Erv Miller Stable Inc of Wind Gap, Pa.

 In his Illinois debut Louise’s Legacy finished second to Sunburnt Silverado with driver Juan Franco in late July at Du Quoin. One week later Louise’s Legacy even the score with a victory in an Illinois State Fair Colt Stakes contest at Springfield with Marcus taking over the driving chores.

 A few weeks later the two youngsters met again in a division of Du Quoin’s $35, 125 Governor Cup with Sunburnt Silverado prevailing. In mid-September it was Louise’s Legacy time to shine in the $55,000 Illinois Department of Agriculture’s freshman male contest.

 The first Kadabra leg came eight days later (Sept. 19) and Louise’s Legacy has to settle for the runner-up role to the Grummel trained trotter.

 The pair wouldn’t tangle again for a month. Meanwhile Louise’s Legacy stayed sharp with a winning qualifier at Hoosier Park. Louise’s Legacy again was second best to his rival in the October 20th Kadabra series leg. However, that was the last time the daughter of Lima Simplicity would lose a race as a 2-year-old.

 In early November Louise’s Legacy went on to triumph in the last Kadabra leg, and one week later followed with a career best 1:56.4 mile in the $132,858 Kadabra championship. The youngster’s win in the $96,683 Cardinal boosted his first season purse earnings to $189,563 that likely sealed the deal for the top in the juvenile division.