Local Horses Fare Well at Illinois State Fairgrounds

By KURT BECKER

BEECHER CITY -- Brian and Kandi Herzog of Beecher City realized a milestone on Monday, scoring their first career victory as racehorse owners when Kandi’s Fortune won a division of the Illinois Fair Stakes for two-year-old pacing fillies at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

Purchased last fall from the Illini Classic Yearling Sale at the Livestock Center Sales Arena next-door to the racetrack, Kandi’s Fortune led from start to finish with trainer Freddie Patton Jr. in the sulky. The time for the mile was 2:02.3.

Also on Monday, no fewer than four horses with local and area connections posted runner-up efforts on the 12-race program. They included Murray’s Layaway, for owners Darla Martin Lohman and Lacy Longnecker-Motch of Effingham; TE’s Smoothas Silk, owned by Brownstown native T.E. Harre Jr.; Cassie Marie’s TT, from the barn of Newton’s Alan Finn; and Lovedancinwithyou, for owner Mitch Titus of Charleston.

In Chicago last weekend, Fox Valley Exploit rolled to her third victory in as many starts this season for owners David Brigham of Concord, Michigan, and Kyle Husted of Altamont, as the three-year-old pacing filly captured a leg of the Plum Peachy Series at Hawthorne Racecourse. Trained and driven by Husted, Fox Valley Exploit has now won eight of her 12 career starts, for earnings of $128,000. Her time for the mile was a personal best 1:54.2.

In other action at Hawthorne, Desert Sheik was runner-up in a leg of the Erwin F. Dygert Trot for co-owner Dean Biggs of Altamont; Clearly The Bomb was third in a leg of the Incredible Tillie Series for co-owner and trainer Angie Coleman, formerly of Altamont; and Sirius Speedway nabbed a win for owner Jon Huddleston of Mattoon and trainer Stan Swisher of Humboldt.