By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

  Hinsdale, IL—When the State Fairs at Springfield and Du Quoin roll around in mid and late August, it’s the time you see some of the two-year-olds start to blossom and show their potential.

  It was no different this year and among the state-bred freshman trotting division horses like Lous Esmeralda, Calypso Moon, Shady Maple Ace, Little Chipper, Lous Amazon, El Champee’onn, Stand By Your Man, and Lous Private Eye all showed their heels to their opponents with victories at the recent Du Quoin State Fair.

  Some of those victories were expected, some weren’t.

  One of the double-digit priced winners was Lous Private Eye, from the barn of trainer Steve Searle. A son of the reigning Illinois Trotting Sire of the Year Lou’s Legacy, the juvenile colt wasn’t a factor in his first four starts.

 The freshman brother of the barn’s Illinois 2 and 3-year-old champion Lous Dobb turned his fortunes around at Mt Sterling Fair in early August when his regular driver Casey Leonard gave Lous Private Eye a pocket-trip and the colt ended up a nine-plus length winner in 2:02.1 on a “good” track over Deenbo, then the leader in the ICF juvenile grouping.

 Despite the comfortable win, Lous Private Eye ($12.40) was, not surprisingly, the fourth choice in the betting last Tuesday in the $25,000 second split of the Governor’s Cup with the early leaders Shady Maple Star, Deenbo and Tru Cash all also going postward in the same event.

  Casey raced Lou’s Private Eye inside in third most of the way only to find the Flacco Family Farms homebred shuffled to nest to last in the eight-horse field at the top of late. However once Casey found daylight in the lane, his colt powered past the field with a 28.1 last panel, more than one length the best at the end of a 1:58.2 mile over Shady Maple Alstar.

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