Red Mile: Kentucky Championship Series finals for pacers dominated by Gingras, Burke

Sippinonsearoc, Looksgoodinloulou and Ubrute capped off a huge weekend for driver Yannick Gingras and trainer Ron Burke by winning three of the four $400,000 Kentucky Championship Series finals for pacers on Sunday evening at The Red Mile. Topville Lucky, making her first start for trainer Andrew Harris, took the other event.

In the 3-year-old colt and gelding final, Sippinonsearoc landed third and then brushed to the front on the way to the 27 second opening quarter. From there, Sippinonsearoc continued on top through a 54 2/5 half and a 1:22 three-quarters, then held sway over stablemate Captain Arturovico (Dexter Dunn) by half a length in 1:48 3/5. Fallout (Tim Tetrick) led early, yielded to sit behind the winner and wound up third.

"He was a little tired at the wire. I'm not sure if he was quite as sharp as maybe the last couple weeks," Gingras offered. "At the end of the day, like I said yesterday with Lexus Kody, it doesn't matter on the check. We'll get the same thing. That's just a credit to the horse. He's a top horse and he got the job done."

A Downbytheseaside colt bred by Trent Stohler Stable Inc. and Alesha Binkley, Sippinonsearoc is trained by Ron Burke for owners Burke Racing Stable LLC., Weaver Bruscemi LLC., R A S Racing LLC. and Knox Services Inc. He has a summary of 12-4-2 from 23 starts, has earned $1,010,900 and paid $2.66 to win.

The final for 3-year-old fillies saw Unreasonable (Marcus Miller) cut the quarter in 27 4/5 and then make 1-9 favorite Miki And Minnie (Dunn) work past the 54 2/5 half to clear. Miki And Minnie would go on to reach three-quarters in 1:22 1/5 as Champagne Room pressured her from first-over, but in the lane it was Looksgoodinloulou who had the best kick as Gingras fanned her out after an inside trip and rallied by Miki And Minnie to tally by three-quarters of a length in 1:48 3/5. Miki And Minnie had to settle for second and Unreasonable was third.

"To me I think she's good enough to win these races. A couple of times I thought she should've won and she didn't, a couple of times maybe bad trips and she was tying up a little bit, too," Gingras said after the win. "The money is coming really now anyways, so hopefully she's sharp for the second half of the season."

Burke trains Looksgoodinloulou, a daughter of Sweet Lou, for co-owners/breeders Burke Racing Stable LLC. and Weaver Bruscemi LLC. and co-owners Larry Karr and Phil Collura. She has a summary of 8-5-0 from 17 starts, has earned $624,087 and returned $27.86 to win.

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Gingras and Burke came right back in the 2-year-old colt and gelding final to win with Ubrute. He worked his way to the top past Brandon Blvd (Tim Tetrick) coming to the 55 second half, fought off a stern first-over attack from Be Sting (Dunn) on the final bend and to the 1:23 2/5 three-quarters and came home in 26 2/5 to hold off Brandon Blvd by half a length in 1:49 4/5. Be Sting was a game third.

"This week and last week were the first times he's ever wore the same equipment twice," Burke remarked. "We've constantly been changing, and we've found where we think he's happy and where we can be all right with him being happy."

Ubrute, a colt by Tall Dark Stranger, is trained by Burke for co-owner/breeder Burke Racing Stable LLC., co-owner/breeder Phil Collura and their partners Weaver Bruscemi LLC. and Hatfield Stables. Ubrute has a summary of 2-1-1 from five tries, has pocketed $269,600 and paid $3.48 to win. Ubrute is the first foal out of world champion Warrawee Ubeaut (1:48 3/5, $1,849,063).

Topville Lucky won the final for rookie fillies in 1:50 4/5. Leaving from post six, she got around Gala (Todd McCarthy) past the 27 3/5 quarter. Topville Lucky would back down the tempo to 56 seconds and 1:24 4/5 in the middle-half, and after Gala and a first-over Beautiful Memory (James MacDonald) hooked wheels briefly in the lane, she opened up an insurmountable gap en route to winning by three-quarters of a length. Gala closed well after the trouble but had to settle for second, followed Burke-trained Seaside Shuffle (Gingras).

"We picked her up on Wednesday and Erv's (former trainer Erv Miller) been super-great. He gave me all the information he could on her," remarked Harris, while also crediting Miller on the job he did developing Topville Lucky. "He's just been like listen, 'I want her to go do good for you, I want you guys to come back and shop from us, this is great for all of us.' He was super-great with it and he told me everything I needed to know. He seemed like he didn't mislead me at all, so I really appreciate Erv. Dexter said this is the real deal. He said I asked her to go at the top of the lane and did she ever just take off."

By Sweet Lou, bred by Jeremy Yoder and owned by Harris in partnership with William Pollock and Bruce Areman, Topville Lucky has four wins in five starts, has earned $295,000 and returned $4.56 to win.