Shenandoah Downs: Lou's Starr lowers track record
Dan Chansky's Lou's Starr, fresh off an appearance in the $500,000 Little Brown Jug final September 18, scored an impressive wire-to-wire win Sunday - in track record time for 3-year-old pacers - in the $9,000 winners over pacing feature at Shenandoah Downs.
The Scott Warnick trainee was driven by Fern Paquet Jr., who scored his 3,500th career victory in the sulky after leaving from outside post eight. Lou's Starr faced a field of older geldings, plus one mare, and was sent off as the 1-2 betting choice. The 3-year-old Sweet Lou colt surged to the front on the outside after exiting the first turn, passing Rebellious and Leonard's Legacy and authoring that initial quarter in 27 2/5. The winner went on to cut additional panels of 55 1/5 and 1:23 3/5 before crossing the wire in 1:52, just one fifth of a second off the overall track record set by Marco Beach in 1:51 4/5.
Leonard Hubbard's Leonard's Legacy finished second, 1 1/4 lengths behind, while P T Stable's Rebellious took third.
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Lou's Starr earned his 12th career win and pushed his bankroll to $125,297. The pacer has been based at Shenandoah Downs the past three live meets and has thrived, with eight wins in nine starts locally. His only blemish was a second-place finish during the 2025 spring meet.
It was only fitting that Paquet, who has driven Lou's Starr in all eight Woodstock wins, recorded his landmark triumph aboard the pacer. Paquet has made 28,439 starts and has 3,733 seconds, 3,781 third-place finishes and career earnings of $21.5 million.
Shenandoah Downs has three weeks remaining in its fall season. Racing continues this coming Saturday & Sunday, October 11 & 12, with cards both days at 1:05 P.M. (EDT) Virginia Breeder's eliminations for 2-year-olds begin this weekend with trotters on Saturday and pacers on Sunday. The first 500 fans on Saturday will receive a William Carter bobblehead. The 21-year-old driver got his first driving win ever at the Woodstock oval. Details are at shenandoahdowns.com.
--press release (Shenandoah Downs)--