by Neil Milbert

Trainer Mike Brink was a little leery last summer when Cash Money Twenty’s owners William and Sherrie Bycroft and trainer Brett Ballinger offered to send him the 2-year-old gelding from Running Aces to race in Illinois.

They told him Cash Money Twenty is a son of Stevensville, and Brink hadn’t had success with the stallion’s offspring.

“I had two or three Stevensvilles and they weren’t much,” Brink said. “They could never close.

“I said [to the Bycrofts and Ballinger], ‘Let me look him up and I’ll let you know.’”

When he checked out Cash Money Twenty’s past performance sheet, he saw the gelding had won all four of his races at the five-eighths-mile Minnesota track and flaunted a fast-closing final quarter in the most recent victory.

“Maybe this is the Stevensville that’s the real deal,” Brink said he thought to himself.

The veteran trainer added Cash Money Twenty to his stable and indeed the colt turned out to be “the real deal,” and the 2024 Illinois-bred Horse of the Year.

“He’s crazy fast — he wants to go a million miles an hour — and he’s a little bit crazy on top of that, and I think a combination of those two makes him what he is,” Brink said of the son of Stevensville—Hostess Lisa, by Sagebrush who set an all-time Illinois record for a 2-year-old when he won at Springfield in 1:50 and finished the year with a 10-race resume consisting of nine victories and one second.

Cash Money Twenty’s earnings totaled $226,545. His most lucrative conquest came on the Night of Champions at Hawthorne Racecourse where he won the $206,253 Incredible Finale for 2-year-old pacers, richest of the 12 championship races for Illinois-breds.

“He’s got all the tools,” said the state’s perennial leading driver Casey Leonard, who took the reins after Cash Money Twenty moved to Illinois and bought an interest in him from the Bycroft couple’s Heart and Soul Racing stable before the Night of Champions. “He’s an athlete.

“And Mike did a great job with him.”

Brink, in turn, praised former trainer Ballinger for his role in Cash Money Twenty’s smashing success story.

“After he came to us, we didn’t have to do much with him,” Brink said.

Cash Money Twenty also will be honored as the 2024 state champion 2-year-old male on Saturday night (March 1) at the Illinois Standardbred Banquet at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

In addition to the Horse of the Year and the 12 divisional titlists, the champion pacing and trotting sires and broodmares will be honorees.

Four accomplished horsemen, Terry Leonard, Freddie Patton, Jr., Bill Wright and the late Tom Tetrick, and three racing stalwarts of yesteryear, Mucho Sleazy, Fox Valley Tribal and King Johnny, will be inducted into the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Hall of Fame. Tom Shinn and LeAnn Shinn will be recipients of the IHHA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of their contributions to the sport’s archives in Illinois.

Based on their performances at the Illinois county fairs 23 pacers and 28 trotters will receive Colt Association awards.

Lou’s Legacy, who stands at Dr. Richard Flacco’s Flacco Family Farms, was selected the champion trotting sire for the ninth consecutive year.

Five of his offspring are 2024 champions: 2-year-old filly trotter Lou’s My Number, 2-year-old male trotter Louise’s Legacy, 3-year-old filly trotter Whiskey Lou, 3-year-old male trotter Lous Private Eye and older mare trotter Marvelous Mystery. Both Whiskey Lou and Lous Private Eye repeated as state champions.

Steve Searle trained Lou’s My Number and Lous Private Eye and also Fox Valley Tessa, the champion 3-year-old filly pacer bred by Fox Valley Standardbreds. Lous Private Eye and Fox Valley Tessa have subsequently been sold and are with other trainers this year.

“We had the mother of Lou’s My Number [Ants Iner Pants] and she raced very well for us,” said Searle, breeder and co-owner of the filly. “Now, with Lou’s My Number, it’s like watching your own kids in sports.”

Lou’s My Number went into the Night of Champions with a good but not great record of two wins, six places and one show but she rose to the occasion and won the richest trotting race, the $144,637 Fox Valley Flan in 1:56.4, setting the track record for her sex and gait.

“She kept getting better and better,” Searle said. “She broke the track record and she did it again in the Violet.”

Lous Private Eye was racing for her breeder, Flacco Family Farms, when she won the $134,744 Erwin F. Dygert Memorial Trot on the Night of Champions. She finished the year with a 14-race record of eight firsts, a pair of second and two third place performances and earnings of $94,235.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have the Flaccos as one of my main owners,” Searle said. “They send me Lou’s Legacy babies every year.”

The most successful of the 2024 state champions sired by Lou’s Legacy was Whiskey Lou, a winner of 13 of her 14 races for owner/breeder Randy Wilt and trainer Curt Grummel. Racing on a sloppy surface on the Night of Champions she won the $10,658 Beulah Dygert Memorial by four lengths.

Marvelous Mystery (9 4-2-0) also is a Grummel trainee and Curt co-owns the mare in a family partnership. She earned $66,484 and was clocked in a career best 1:52.3 at the DuQuoin State Fair. On the Night of Champions, she was victorious in the $80,000 Carl Becker Memorial.

Louise’s Legacy is trained by Erv Miller, who co-owns and co-bred the gelding with Geis Enterprise LLC. He finished his freshman year with five wins, four places and three shows in 12 outings for earnings of $189,563 and recorded a career best 1:56.4 when he won the $132,858 Kadabra on the Night of Champions.

THUMBNAIL PROFILES OF THE OTHER 2024 STATE CHAMPIONS:

• 2-year-old filly pacer: The Beautiful Things. Returning after being scratched from the first two of her previous three races for trainer Amy Husted and her husband/driver Kyle Husted she won the $224,623 Incredible Tillie by four lengths in 1:52.2 on the Night of Champions. She finished with nine triumphs in 10 starts, a bankroll of $198,752 and a career best time of 1:52.1 at DuQuoin.

• 3-year-old filly pacer: Fox Valley Tessa. After winning the $189,701 Plum Peachy as an 11-1 longshot on the Night of Champions she captured two more races to finish the year strongly after being scratched from two races in October because of sickness. Her bottom line was 15 4-2-3, earnings of $126,461 and a career best 1:53.2 in the Plum Peachy.

• Older male pacer: He’zzz A Wise Sky. In defending the divisional championship he earned in 2023, the 7-year-old horse had a workaholic campaign that saw him race 33 times and record eight victories, nine seconds and four thirds and deposit $164,947 in the coffers of the Filomeno family’s Triple ZZZ Stable. He won the $60,000 Phil Langley Memorial on the Night of Champions for the third straight year.

• Older mare pacer: Scorecard Dandy. Last year’s state champion 3-year-old filly put on an encore performance in 2024. The daughter of Sportsmaster was clocked in a lifetime best 1:50 on July 15 at Oak Grove, also won an open company race at Hoosier, and excelled in her home state on the Night of Champions by winning the $60,000 Tony Maurello Memorial for trainer Gregory Kain by three lengths in 1:51.2. She raced 27 times and recorded four wins, four places and six shows for a $100,750 bankroll.

• Older male trotter: Niko Man. In winning the $60,000 Plesac by four lengths on a sloppy track in 1:54.1 as the 1-5 favorite the gelded son of Cassis trounced last year’s Horse of the Year Goomster, who broke stride and was last in the field of six. Niko Man ended the year with a 25-race composite of nine firsts, three seconds and two thirds for trainer Ken Rucker.

• Pacing Sire: Somestarsomewhere. He earned the title for the third year in a row. His most notable offspring was The Beautiful Things.

• Pacing Broodmare: Gimmeazzmooch. She is the dam of He’zzz A Wise Sky.

• Trotting Broodmare: Bands One Eye Love. She is the dam of Lous Private Eye.