Lou Brissie Rallies to Win 22nd Kentucky Juvenile

Apr 30, 2010 Darren Rogers

LOUISVILLE, KY (Friday, April 30, 2010) – Dogwood Stable’s Lou Brissie surged past favored Twelve Pack Shelly inside the eighth pole and then held off a late bid from Boys At Tosconova to win the 22nd running of the $110,300 Kentucky Juvenile (GIII) on by 1 ½ lengths Friday afternoon at Churchill Downs.

    Trained by Neil Howard and ridden by John Velazquez, Lou Brissie ran the five furlongs in :57.80 in winning the first graded stakes race of 2010 for 2-year-olds in North America. It was Howard’s third victory in the Kentucky Juvenile having saddled Island Escape to victory in 1988 and Summer Squall, also owned by Dogwood, in 1989.

    Nina Fever was first out of the gate, but Twelve Pack Shelly and Harry Vega quickly took command and led the field through the first quarter mile in :21.92. Turning for home, Twelve Pack Shelly shook off one challenge from Wetzel but was soon joined
by Lou Brissie.

    A Kentucky-bred son of Limehouse out of the Forest Wildcat mare Fearless Wildcat, Lou Brissie put away Twelve Pack Shelly and went on to his second victory in two starts.

    Lou Brissie returned $9.40, $4.80 and $2.80. Boys At Toscanova, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, returned $7.20 and $3 and finished a neck ahead of Twelve Pack Shelly, who paid $2.40 to show. Wetzel finished another 2 ½ lengths back followed by Nina Fever.

    The victory was worth $68,386 and increased Lou Brissie’s earnings to $98,386.

            KENTUCKY JUVENILE QUOTES

JOHN VELAZQUEZ (Jockey, Lou Brissie, winner): “Nothing bothers him. It’s unbelievable. I broke out of there. I didn’t want to be too far back and have too much dirt hitting him and get discouraged. Once I got him in the clear and the five-sixteenths pole, he got into a good rhythm and I just kept him there. Down the lane I just had to keep him mind on running. The way his personality is, in the future going longer will be better.”

NEIL HOWARD (Trainer, Lou Brissie, winner): “That’s what they do at Dogwood, they spend the time with them. He acts so much more mature than what he is. He’s a very mature acting kind of horse. When he ran the first time he really surprised me. He trained OK and he was ready to run, but I didn’t think he would do that. He was so reserved. He broke a lot better today.”
         “When I got him, I ran him right away, because he already ran in the (Aiken) Trials.”

KENT DESORMEAUX (Jockey, Boys at Tosconova, second): “He ran an excellent race. A little immature with the sand in his face. I think today was a great experience and he’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the future.”

ROBERT HESS (Trainer, Boys at Tosconova, second): “Kent (Desormeaux) really helped us with the preparation up at Keeneland. We knew that he’s not really a five-furlong horse, but we thought he had enough class to be competitive. I think he proved himself to be a nice horse.”
HARRY VEGA (Jockey, Twelve Pack Shelly, third as favorite): 'I would have liked to gotten away with her a little cleaner. It's a baby and they get scared. They just have to learn everything. She learned a lot of things and she handled it well.'
JOHN SALZMAN JR. (Trainer, Twelve Pack Shelly, third as favorite): “I don’t know what happened leaving the gate. You can’t see much here. She got off a step slow and they went :21 4/5. It looked like she made up some ground on them pretty quick. I just think we went too fast the first quarter and ran out of horse at the end. No complaints. Just got beat.”

                -30-

Darren Rogers
Senior Director, Communications & Media Services
Churchill Downs
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