Illinois trot champion Lousdobb (Casey Leonard) and his younger sister Lous Night Vision compete Friday at Du Quoin. (Four Footed Fotos)

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA 

  Unless you’re a novice of our sport, one of the first things you look at when handicapping a race of 2-year-olds is their breeding, and you would be following in the same thought process of most trainers looking at a yearling catalog while attempting to “smoke out a” potential sale purchase.

 Is the horse from a winning family? Does he or she have any brothers or sisters that have been very successful on the racetrack?

 We applied that logic to the early portion of today’s Du Quoin card where Illinois freshman eligible to Hawthorne’s down the road Night of Champions will compete against each other and did the research for you.

 One particular race, the fourth, stands out concerning siblings.

  Making her debut is Lous Night Vision, not surprisingly Casey Leonard’s choice among three trotters to drive in the contest. Owned by her breeder Flacco Family Farms of Alexis, Illinois, Lous Night Vision is by Lou’s Legacy, out of the Bands One Eye broodmare, therefore she’s a full sister to Illinois champions Lous Dobb and Lous Private Eye. All three trotters are trained by Steve Searle.

 Lous Night Vision got her first taste of competition two weeks ago at the Henry County Fair, winning easily in 2:15 on a “good track” and Casey did the driving, his first trip to Henry in decades, so he must be high on the young filly.

 Lousdobb twice won ICF divisional honors under Searle’s guidance while Lous Private Eye was the 2023 Illinois two-year-old male trot titleholder and is unbeaten in in his sophomore campaign.

 In Friday’s same race Flacco Family farms debuts Lous Avalon (Wyatt Avenatti). Another daughter of Lous Legacy, her dam in Snarky Lane, the same breeding of the farms Lous Mandalorian (1:58.2), one of the contenders in this year’s ICF sophomore colt and gelding trot division.

 Ironically, another Lous Legacy prodigy with champion breeding is also in the same race: What A Legacy (Mike Brink). She’s out of the dam Little Rigs. Her full sister is Stand By Your Man, the winner of last year’s Fox Valley Flan championship for trainer Mike Brink. What A Legacy sold for $34,000 at the Walker Sale two years ago.

 Brink’s first-time starter in race five is Fox Valley Jericho (Casey Leonard). He’s by Somestarsomewhere from the dam Roll With Josie, the same family tree as successful state-bred pacers Fox Valley Steeler (1:52.2) and Fox Valley York (1:55).

 Another Somestarsomewhere colt bowing today is the Gary Rath stable’s Sleazyandincharge (Wyatt Avenatti) for the Engle Stable LLC of Northbrook, Illinois. He’s a half-brother of former Illinois bred pacers Sleazeburgernfries (1:51.3) and Sleazeburgersleazeburger (1:51.4).

 Later on the card defending state-bred filly trot titleholder Whiskey Lou (Casey Leonard) puts her six race winning streak on the line in race eleven.

  The Flacco Family farm will be watching the 12-race program from start to finish. It’s champion Lousdobb (Casey Leonard) guns for his 20th lifetime victory in the nightcap,