Giggles The Clown, a terror at two and three, and a solid open mare in her later years, will make her final starts at Bamoral and Maywood this month.
"This mare is really so good right now," trainer and co-owner Roger Welch said. "I want her to go out in style at her two favorite tracks, Maywood and Balmoral. She's feeling good, her blood count is great and we've been monitoring her ovaries for months, trying to decide if now is the right time for her to retire and begin a breeding career."
The solid-built, chocolate-colored mare was foaled on April 12, 1997 at Cottonwood Farm in Big Rock, Il., the daughter of Sportsmaster, and the first foal of two out of the Incredible Finale mare Fancy Clown. She went on to earn $104,484 at two, pacing to winning mile of 1:54.2 at Balmoral that year.
"Giggles" returned at three to lower her career mark to 1:52.1-again in the fall at Balmoral-winning 12 of 21 starts and earning $240,942 for Welch and co-owner Mary L Gangloff of Logansport, Indiana.
That year (2000) she competed against the likes of Incredible Tillie and Apple Of My Eye consistently, winning the $50,000 Spring Championship and the $115,000 Maywood Filly Pace. She also captured two $10,000 legs and the $50,000 Final of the Genesis Series at Hoosier Park that summer, and finished second by a head to Apple Of My Eye in the $200,000 Grandma Ann at Balmoral on Super Night.
At four the hardy mare began competing in the open and invitational classes in the Windy City, lowering her lifetime mark to 1:50.3 on May 17, 2001 at Balmoral with Dave Magee at the lines in a track record time that still stands today. She would go on to set two more track records during her career at Maywood, her best of 1:53 came on September 25, 2002 in a front-stepping win in a $15,000 Filly & Mare Open for driver Ken Holliday.
Those victories and many others at Chicago's in-town half-miler earned her the appropriate title of "The Pacing Queen of Maywood Park."
