Patience Pays Off
Tommy and Rita Hewett’s Cajun Mitole is a success story that was years in the making.
by Denis Blake
Breeding Thoroughbreds is not a pursuit for impatient people. First, you must take care of a pregnant mare for about a year, then wait two more years before the resulting foal even has a chance to race. And that’s the best-case scenario. Breeders Tommy and Rita Hewett have been married nearly 40 years, so they know how to play the long game, and it’s paying off with their latest success story, Cajun Mitole.
The talented 3-year-old Louisiana-bred colt by Mitole joined the ranks of stakes winners on February 1 when he beat a strong field of runners in the $100,000 LA Bred Premier Night Prince Stakes at Delta Downs. Ridden by Alex Birzer for trainer Brett Brinkman, Cajun Mitole drew clear to win the seven-furlong contest by nearly two lengths to increase his bankroll to $125,730. The colt has never finished off the board with a record of 5-3-1-1, all at Delta Downs.
Cajun Mitole wins the 2025 Louisiana Premier Night Sprint Stakes. Hodges Photo.
Louisiana Premier Night Prince Stakes Winners Circle at Delta Downs. Hodges Photo.
Even though the Hewetts, who race and breed as Coulee Croche Thoroughbreds LLC, have a fairly small Thoroughbred operation, this isn’t the first time that lightning has struck. It was just over a decade ago that they accomplished a rare feat for any breeder outside of Kentucky when they bred Grade 2 winner Designer Legs. The Louisiana-bred daughter of Graeme Hall was not only a graded stakes winner, but that win came in the Adirondack Stakes at historic Saratoga Race Course.
Designer Legs wins the 2013 Adirondack Stakes.
Designer Legs actually crossed the wire a neck behind Who’s in Town in that race, but she earned the victory after the original winner was taken down for interference. Designer Legs went on to run in Grade 1 races at Saratoga and Keeneland, and then she competed in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita. She did not make much of an impact in those stakes, but she still made the Hewetts and her home state proud. Watching a horse they bred run in the national spotlight was a thrill for the couple, but it wasn’t quite the same as owning her. They had sold the filly at the Breeders’ Sales Company of Louisiana September Yearling Sale.
The Hewetts almost had the same experience with Cajun Mitole, as he went through the ring in the Texas Summer Yearling Sale in 2023 as part of the Clear Creek Stud consignment. The toteboard numbers topped out at $29,000 on the yearling, just $1,000 less than Tommy was willing to take, so the colt went back to Louisiana. And the Hewetts, along with now partners Clear Creek Stud LLC, are sure glad he did.
“I was a little reluctant to even sell him,” said Tommy. “We didn’t get enough interest to push it to $30,000, so I bought brought him back.
“He got back to Clear Creek, and two or three days later Val (Murrell) called me. He said, ‘I know you wanted $30,000, so if you are looking to take on a partner, I’ll give you $15,000 for half.’ I thought that was fair enough, because Val and I have been friends and partners on others before.”
Now Cajun Mitole’s owners are sure glad that he didn’t get one last bid back in Texas.
“I’m absolutely ecstatic that we didn’t get him sold, because then somebody else would be having all this fun,” said Tommy.
The Louisiana-bred has a history that stretches back well before the 2021 breeding season when his dam visited Mitole in his second year at stud. Mitole was a brilliant racehorse, as proven by more than $3 million in earnings, wins in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and Metropolitan Mile, and an Eclipse Award as champion sprinter. Even so, his prowess as a stallion was then unknown.
“I’m absolutely ecstatic that we didn’t get him sold, because then somebody else would be having all this fun.”
Tommy Hewett
“A good friend of mine from Kentucky, Ms. Martha Jane Mulholland (owner of Mulholland Springs farm), said, ‘If you bring her to Mitole, you’re going to get a pretty horse, and she was right.”
Not only is Cajun Mitole good-looking, but he’s also fast. Hewett is hoping he also gets better with age, like Mitole did by finding most of his success as a 4-year-old.
When you look at Cajun Mitole’s pedigree, his bottom side is accomplished, but perhaps not obviously so at first glance. His dam is Louisiana-bred Cajun Flower, who the Hewetts bred with C.F. Newman. The Flower Alley filly never visited the winner’s circle, and she only hit the board once in eight starts. But the full story is more than just her stats.
“She had a lot of talent,” said Tommy,” but we couldn’t stop her from tying up. We tried everything imaginable but never got it worked out. But I also had her mother, and she was the toughest mare I ever owned. Just sheer toughness.”
That mare was Ihavemyeyeonyou, who like Cajun Flower never finished better than second on the track. But she passed her toughness down the line.
And when you go back one more generation, to Ihavemyeyeonyou’s dam Ed’s Holy Cow, the talent in the family comes into better focus. Sired by Grade 2 winner Bet Big, Ed’s Holy Cow was a maiden winner at Saratoga, and she’s in the pedigree of a horse that’s probably familiar to Louisiana horsemen named Simply Joking. The Pennsylvania-bred filly by Practical Joke has just two career starts to date, but both are stakes wins at Fair Grounds in the Letellier Memorial and Fasig-Tipton Silverbulletday. She’s on track to race in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes in New Orleans on February 15.
“We’ve been on a long path to get to Cajun Mitole,” said Tommy about the process of producing their latest stakes winner.
Cajun Mitole seems to have some of his grandam in him, and Tommy has seen it come out at the track.
“I had a feeling he was going to really be good, but you know I’ve had that feeling before on others that didn’t quite work out,” he said. “But I’ve always had confidence in him because I gotta tell you one thing about this horse. He has confidence in himself, and you can see it whenever he gets into the paddock. He looks around at the competition and it’s like he’s staring them down and he says, ‘Yeah, you going down.’ He’s got that little it factor.”
It took patience and many years to produce Cajun Mitole, and the Hewetts are not looking to rush things now that he’s blossoming on the track, tempting as that might be.
Trainer Brett Brinkman in the winners circle following the Louisiana Premier Night Prince Stakes.
“Our trainer Brett Brinkman is excellent,” said Tommy. “I tell him all the time when I’m talking and offering out suggestions that whenever I get out of my lane, you just tell me to tap my brakes. I would really have wanted to at least give him a shot at (Kentucky) Derby points, but that’s probably not going to happen because of the timing. But everybody in this business dreams about that and so I told him after his last win to just leave me alone for a little while and let me dream, even though that’s not probably gonna work out.
“For me, the health of the horse is the most important thing, and I’m trying to orchestrate a long career for him, so that’s more important than immediate gratification.”
Cajun Mitole is the perfect name for this horse, as the Hewetts’ main business revolves around crawfish. The couple own and operate Rita’s Quick Stop near Iota, about halfway between Lakes Charles and Lafayette in the southern portion of the state.
Rita’s Quick Stop near Iota.
While the name might lead one to believe it’s a simple convenience store, it’s much more than that. It’s not big or fancy, but it is a bit of an institution in the area. The store sells smoked sausage, beef jerky and other Cajun specialties, including, of course, crawfish. It’s both a labor of love and a labor of time.
“The crawfish businesses probably makes us 80 percent of our income for the store, and the store keeps us all busy,” said Tommy. “But I’m still here at this store, because like I tell people, I really enjoy what I’m doing even after 31 years of doing it. I get here at 6:20 every morning, except Sundays are a little bit different. But I’m here at 6:20, and I’ve never been late and never set an alarm.”
The store has a history dating back to 1931, and the Hewetts have owned it for more than three decades and counting. The hard but enjoyable work of running the store, and the fun of breeding and racing Thoroughbreds, have been a part of the couple’s life through almost 40 years of marriage.
Rita Hewett on her way to the winners circle following Cajun Mitole’s win in the Louisiana Premier Night Prince Stakes.
Tommy said that Rita has always been supportive of their Thoroughbred endeavors, especially when things are going well.
“There’s been times, you know, when you sense that she’s not as into it, because I tell her about one that’s running or what another one’s doing and she’s kind of like, uh huh, uh huh, but right now she’s well aware of when the horses are running and she wants to be their when (Cajun Mitole) is running.”
The couple also has high hopes for another Louisiana-bred named C C Cola, a 3-year-old filly by Flatter that they co-bred and co-own with Clear Creek Stud. She made her racing debut in January with a close second-place finish in a maiden special weight race at Delta Downs, and she has the pedigree to possibly give Cajun Mitole a run for his money as the Hewett’s brightest star. Her dam is Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Fanticola, who has already produced a Grade 1 winner with Formidable Man.
For an operation that currently has just three active broodmares, plus one more in partnership, the Hewetts have enjoyed a high level of success. And while they are staying busy during crawfish season, Tommy and Rita always have the races to look forward to for a little fun.
“We are just trying to keep the horses healthy and happy,” said Tommy. “If we can do that and they go out and perform, then we are happy, too.”