Woodbine Harness: Lost For Words ready to roll in Governor's Cup

Trainer Brian Brown has no problem articulating his feelings about Lost For Words.

“As a racehorse, he just does everything the way you want it done,” said Brown, who is preparing the 2-year-old male pacer for the Governor’s Cup eliminations at Woodbine Racetrack on Saturday. “He’s just a nice little horse that never disappoints you.

“Those kinds are nice to have, but hard to get.”

Lost For Words brings a three-race win streak to his Governor’s Cup elim. He competes in the first of the two divisions, starting from post six with driver Doug McNair. The elim also includes stakes-winners Lyons Levi Lewis, Go Daddy Go, and Traceur Hanover.

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Another Brown trainee, Talking Points, is in the second elim, where the spotlight will be on Metro Pace champion Artspeak. Talking Points is winless in nine races, but has earned $72,811.

Woodbine also hosts two eliminations for the Valley Victory Stakes for 2-year-old male trotters on Saturday. The top five finishers in all the elims advance to the finals of the Fall Four Stakes on Oct. 25.

For the year, Lost For Words has won five of nine starts and earned $186,337 for owners Country Club Acres, William Robinson, Richard Lombardo, and Strollin Stable. His most recent three races were victories in the Standardbred Stakes and divisions of the Bluegrass and International Stallion stakes.

“That little guy has raced good almost every start, he just had a couple tough trips here and there,” Brown said. “Otherwise that colt has raced perfect every week.”

Lost For Words has finished off the board only twice. The first time came in his debut, from post eight at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. The second also was at Pocono Downs, when he was stuck on the outside the entire mile from post seven in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship.

He has not lost since.

“I think it says a lot about the horse’s courage and his desire to be a racehorse, to get roughed up and come right back and race as good as he can,” Brown said. “And he wasn’t all out in any of those (most recent) races. He just has a great attitude. You can do whatever you want with him.”

Lost For Words is a son of stallion Well Said out of the stakes-winning mare Thou Shalt Not. He was purchased for $50,000 at the 2013 Lexington Selected Sale and his family includes 1998 Breeders Crown champion Juliet’s Fate.

“I generally look at every Pennsylvania horse in the book and pick out the ones I want to look at,” Brown said. “His pedigree looked fine and when I went and looked at him, I just fell in love with him. He wasn’t a tall horse, but he had an extra little bit of length to him. At that time, when he was a yearling, he was a nice, thick, stout horse. He’s just a good looking horse with a good pedigree.

“The best thing about him is that he’s either improved as the year went on, or he hasn’t lost anything where some of the others are starting to tail off. But he’s been great the last month. He still feels good, he’s still out there playing when he jogs. I trained him (Tuesday) and he was great. I expect him to be OK.”

Talking Points finished third in the Standardbred Stakes and earned checks in divisions of the Bluegrass and International Stallion stakes. Another son of Well Said, out of the mare Bikini Bottom, he is owned by Country Club Acres, AWS Stables, William Robinson and Milton Leeman.

“He’s banged around and gotten checks in most of his starts,” Brown said. “He’s just a nice horse. He’s getting to be a little bit of a bully. He probably needs to be a gelding. He gets a little too grabby and a little hard to handle, so he does wind up on the front some.

“We’re going to try to rig him so they can handle him and come from behind hopefully. Get him to calm down a little bit.”

Lost For Words and Talking Points both are eligible to the Breeders Crown in November.

“As long as Lost races well, he will go,” Brown said. “Talking Points would probably have to be really good the next two weeks for him to go.”

-Courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, please visit www.ustrotting.com