Delaware County Fair: Loua Dipa delivers in Grade 1 Jugette
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Loua Dipa won both the $25,000 first heat and the $240,000 second heat of the Grade 1 Jugette for 3-year-old pacing fillies on Wednesday afternoon at the Delaware (Ohio) County Fairgrounds.
In the opening heat, Loua Dipa (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) took the lead past the opening quarter and went on to win in 1:53 3/5 over I'm A Lou Lou (Tim Tetrick), Darlin's Angel (Lauren Tritton), Sandyboots Yankee (Yannick Gingras), Perfect Thought (Scott Zeron), Vanna By The River (Aaron Merriman), Ideal Beauty Queen (Dexter Dunn) and Kilauea Hanover (Mike Wilder). That finishing order would be how the field would line up from the rail out in the final.
With an equipment change from a kant-see-back bridle with cheek rolls to blinkers, Wrenn Jr. planted Loua Dipa on the front-end from the pole position in the second heat, and she put up fractions of 27, 55 3/5 and 1:24 3/5 on her way to a 1:53 win, prevailing by a length and a quarter in the process. Darlin's Angel sat in the pocket and wound up second over I'm A Lou Lou, who fanned out on the final turn after taking a shuffle from the three-hole. Sandyboots Yankee wound up fourth after she went three-wide from second-over before three-quarters and Perfect Thought was fifth.
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"I was more confident in the second heat than the first heat, but she raced great," said Wrenn Jr. "She's a tremendous filly, and I'm just really proud of her. She raced awesome."
A homebred by Sweet Lou, Loua Dipa is trained by Ron Burke for Burke Racing Stable LLC. and Weaver Bruscemi LLC. She has a summary of 15-3-2 from 23 starts, has earned $1,280,026 and paid $3.60 to win in the first heat and $4.20 to win in the second heat.
After a third-place finish in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes final on September 6, these were Loua Dipa's first victories since she underwent surgery on her throat following a seventh-place result against males in the Adios on July 25.
"This is my sixth Jugette. It's very important, to me, these races, obviously. This horse, her mom was one of my favorite horses, and she's one of my favorite horses, so it means a lot," remarked Burke. "For her to come back from the surgery barely over two months ago and to be back in the winner's circle in a Grade 1 event, we're very happy."