By Mike Paradise

Friday’s $27,500 Cardinal stake divisions for ICF male pacers are loaded with the likes of, 2017 Illinois Harness Horse of the Year Fox Valley Gemini, a romping winner in his opening Carey series, the Tom Simmons Stable’s Backstreet Lawyer, who raised some eyebrows with his 1:50.4 expeditious mile in his Carey division, and the narrow but game winning effort from Fox Valley Hijinx in his series split.

Trainer Jamaica Patton, knows he’ll be in his familiar underdog role when his 3-year-old pacer Sports Analyst returns to the races after a brief two-week layoff, following the Ron Phillips owned pacer’s strong triumph in the Mike Paradise Late Closer Series Final.

The Paradise showdown was a nice field of ICF 3-year-old pacers, but his Friday’s second division Cardinal foes, are a step up to the cream of the crop in the Illinois bred sophomore division.

“Anything can happen in a horse race,” said Jamaica, and off course the 37-year-old Mississippi native is absolutely right.

On Super Night 2008, Jamaica guided trainer Herman Wheeler’s 40-1 My Birthday, to her surprising win in the Lady Ann Reed Final at Balmoral and three years later, he had his second Super Night champion with the Joseph Mullins home-bred Maplegrove Shaelyn, also, in the Lady Ann Reed trot.

Last year at Du Quoin the betting public didn’t give the freshman filly Party Belle much of a chance in the $31,000 Director Awards stake, but Jamaica rallied the 19-1 longshot to victory over Violet champion Rollin Coal.

Two weeks ago, Jamaica’s fast improving Sports Analyst showed he was best in the Paradise Final. The youngster won an earlier leg of the Paradise and was second in the other, but drawing the nine-slot in the 10-horse field final made the task in the series showdown, a difficult one.

And to make Friday’s Cardinal division an even more arduous undertaking, Jamaica had the bad luck to have Sports Analysis land the outside 10-hole. Nevertheless, that hasn’t damped the optimism of the likable Springfield based horseman.

“Sports Analyst just keeps getting better and better” said Jamaica. “He only made two starts as a 2-year-old for my uncle (Freddie Patton Jr.), and came to my barn late in the year.

Jamaica had the horse ready for the winter meet as Sports Analyst grabbed his maiden victory in his third start of the year. At the summer meet, Sports Analyst has picked up is game a notch and Jamaica thinks the horse will keep getting better and better.

The ICF breeding is there to perhaps prove Patton right.

Sports Analyst is a half-brother to the former illustrious ICF pacer, Well To Do Guru, who ended his career five years ago with 41 career wins, a mark of 1:49.3 and $726,359 in purse earnings for owners Marilyn and Frank Gorman of Schaumburg, Illinois, under the care of conditioner, Terry Leonard.

Both horses are out of broodmare Guru’s Girl. Well To Do Guru was sired by Richess Hanover, while Sports Analyst is a son of Sportsmaster.

Starting inside of Sports Analyst in the tight race Cardinal division are Al’s Briefs, Fox Valle Hangten, Shooting Straight, Herecomesmagotta, Yougotitfiguredout, Backstreet Lawyer, Molina, Heza A Real Shooter and Fox Valley Hijinx.

Unbeaten Fox Valley Gemini (Casey Leonard), heads-up the fifth race first $27,100 Cardinals split, in search of his 13th consecutive triumph.

By Mike Paradise

The road to Hawthorne’s Night of Champions begins Saturday evening for ICF pacing fillies with the first legs of the Plum Peachy stake series. A total of four series legs will be contested at the summer meet with the 10 highest point earning fillies securing a spot in the late September championship.

As we discussed in Friday’s column points are earned thusly: 50 for first, 25 for second, 12 for third, 8 for fourth, 5 for fifth and 1 point for starting in a series leg.

With 19 fillies entered for round one there will be two $12,500 Plum Peachy divisions on tap. The fifth race first division has last season’s freshman champion Fox Valley Jazzy (pp. 7, Ridge Warren) at opening odds of 8-5 with the Mike Brink Stable’s right there at 9-5 first flash odds.

I have no problem with those early odds. Both fillies match-up well for their first of several slugfests during the summer, starting at Hawthorne and moving to the State Fairs and Springfield and Du Quoin later in the summer.

The Dale Kanitz trained Fox Valley Jazzy finished second best by three lengths to Allbeastnobeauity in an ICF filly prep event two weeks ago. Both fillies were making their initial start of the season since last year’s Incredible Tillie Final on September 23rd and both should be tighter for tonight’s Plum Peachy event.

Fox Valley Jazzy hauled down a little over $130,000 for Olney, Illinois owner Cathy Finn-Kanitz when she took the 2-year-old division filly honors. Allbeastnobeauty got better in her freshman campaign as the summer went on depositing over $47,000 for co-owners Josh Carter (Williamsville, IL), Mark. Brown (Chatham, IL), Larry Crawford (Port St. Joe, FL) and trainer Mike Brink of Springfield, IL

Their opponents in round one of the Plum Peachy are Sheincrediblenasty (Robert Smolin), Listentoyourheart (Tyler Shehan), Frontier Cuzin (Juan Franco), JB’s Shooting Star (Casey Leonard), Tempest Heart (Kyle Wilfong), Party Belle (Jamaica Patton) and Red Hot Packerette )Kyle Husted).

The tenth race second Plum Peach division has three fillies that are all possibilities as the public’s choice at post time.

The Steve Searle Stable’s The New Americana (Matt Krueger) is listed at 2-1 in the program after banking nearly $70,000 as a freshman campaign where she chalked up a half dozen victories, including the Springfield championship for Illinoisans Dave Falzone (Chicago), Jim Molitor (Oak Lawn) and Steve Leita (Rockford)

Rodney Freese’s Fox Valley Catwalk (Tim Curtin) is listed next at 5-2 early odds. While the Sportsmaster filly wasn’t a major player as a 2-year-old, winning 1 of 9 starts, she’s come in a big way in her second season. She’s a 5-time winner in 10 tries and swept the Carl Becker Late Closer series this past winter at Hawthorne. Fox Valley Catwalk already has over $30,000 on her card in 2018.

Rollin Coal (3-1, Casey Leonard), owned by her Chicago trainer Hosea Williams, was third or better in 13 of 14 first season starts, raking-in over $90,000 and was the Incredible Tillie runner-up on the 2017 Night of Champions.

The Sagebrush filly has been a model of consistency with 5 wins and 5 seconds in her 14 races last year. However, Rollin Coal hasn’t been postward since last October due to some health issues. Nevertheless she qualified nicely a week ago with a 27.2 last quarter and can show gate speed from the 8-slot if asked,

Also looking to grab some Plum Peachy series points tonight are Frontier Ginger (Richard S Finn), Frontier Red (Ryan Anderson), Poppy Seed (Kyle Wilfong), Sportsfashionstar (Robert Smolin), Lotus Gram (Tyler Shehan), Shelby Rae (Gary Rath) and Lilac Laurey (Kyle Wilfong).

Friday’s 12-race card also has a $10,000 Open I Handicap Pace for fillies and mares will be race nine with the Rodney Freeze Stable’s Pretty Image (Tim Curtin) in search of her third consecutive Open win at the meet.

The $16,000 Cicero Claiming Series Final for horses and geldings goes as race five while the same series final for pacing mares is slotted as race seven. Both have enticing $16,000 pots.

Friday’s Wrap Up: The first of three opening round divisions of the Robert F. Carey Memorial stake series turned out to be a three-horse photo with Fox Valley Hijinx ($6.00) coming on in the late going to nip runner-up Molina (Tim Curtin) by a nose and the pace-setting Dandy Dune (Ridge Warren) by a neck.

Trained by his driver Kyle Husted, the victory was the first in a trio of season starts for the 3-year-old Yankee Skyscraper pacer owned by David Bingham of Concord, Michigan.

Husted was back in the winner’s circle in the next race when he gave the Tom Simmons Stable’s Backstreet Lawyer a winning inside trip in a career fastest time of 1:50.4 in the second $12,500 Carey division.

The 3-5 favorite You’remyhearthrob (Kyle Wilfong) grabbed the early lead (28.2) but had to pace a 27 flat second quarter to keep the 47-1 longshot Ernie The Mooss from taking command at the 55.2 half. All the while Husted had Backstreet Lawyer third on the inside patiently waiting for the stretch drive.

Once there Backstreet Lawyer blew past for his winning Illinois owners Marty Engel Stable (Buffalo Grove), Jerry Graham (Salem) and Benita Simmons (Springfield).

Fox Valley Gemini (Casey Leonard) once again proved to be much the best last night. The unbeaten Terry Leonard trainee crushed his Carey division foes by more than five lengths in 1:51.4 while under a hold and is now 12-for-12 lifetime for his Atwater owner Jim Ballinger.

Sagebrush Shocker edged Yougotyofigureitout for second place.

The 3-5 favorite Trashytonguetalker (Casey Leonard) had no trouble disposing of is five foes in the $10,000 Open Pace. The Terry Leonard trained gelding led at every pole of the 1:50.4 mile and is now 6 for 8 on the year.

Casey was also behind the $10,000 Cicero Claiming Series Final winner Electric Albert ($4.00) who took advantage of a pocket trip and nipped R. Duneside at the wire by a nose.

Later in the evening Casey then guided Her Royal Hottness ($6.00) to her 1:54 victory for trainer Gerald Hansen in the $10,000 Cicero Claiming Series for fillies and mares.

Leonard (five) and Husted (four) between them drove 9 of the 12 winning horses on the Hawthorne program.

By Mike Paradise

You’ve read countless times on just how important the draw for post position can be in a major race. On the other hand it’s rare that you’ve seen much about another significant draw that can take place in a horse race and that’s the drawing of multiple divisions, when a series has to be split.

That’s the case tonight, when 25 Illinois bred 3-year-old pacing colts and geldings passed the entry box for the opening legs of the Night of Champion Series for Robert F Carey Memorial.

The final field for the $85.000 (est.) championship on Saturday, September 24th, will be made up of the 10 highest point earnings in the four legs of the series. A first place finisher earns 50 points, then it’s 25 for a second, 12 for a third, 8 for a fourth, 5 for a fifth and 1 point for starting.

Obviously, a series leg victory can go a long way to making the Carey championship, so there’s no doubt some trainers were very happy with the draws for Friday’s three Carey series divisions. While some others I’m sure weren’t grinning from ear to ear.

The pre-Carey heavy favorite will be Fox Valley Gemini from the Terry Leonard Stable, unbeaten in 11 career starts, including nine straight as a freshman, when he was named the 2017 Illinois Harness Horse of the Year.

So far in his second season, Fox Valley Gemini has been bet down to overwhelming 1 to 9 odds in each start and was much the best in both ICF 3-year-old preps. The son of Yankee Skyscraper was a front-end winner (26.2 last quarter), in his May 12th season debut and then one week later, came off the pace with a wicked 26 flat last quarter and a 1:53 flat mile with something left in the tank.

Regular driver Casey Leonard will be back at his lines in the eighth race, third division, of the Carey series opening leg and facing the dauntless task of trying to knock off the ICF champion are Talk About It (Kyle Husted), Yougotitfiguredout (Cliff Bell), Bootleg Island (Ryan Anderson), Sagebrush Shocker (Kyle Wilkfong), Hart To Heart (Tim Curtin), Fox Valley Jalen (Gary Rath) and Heza Real Shooter (Robert Smolin).

Fox Valley Gemini hauled in $157,570 for his Atwater, Illinois owner Jim Ballinger and did it in 9 first season starts. In comparison, his eight challengers tonight earned a combined $20,000 less last year in a total of 72 trips postward,

The other pair of $12,500 Carey series divisions will go as five and six, both look very competitive with a number of ICF sophomores looking capable of coming away with the 50 points awarded to each winner.

The fifth race will line-up (from the one slot out), with Molina (Tim Curtin), Fox Valley Hijinx (Kyle Husted), Dandy Dune (Ridge Warren), Frontier Frank (Travis Seekman), Mykonos (Ryan Anderson), JB’s Engima (Casey Leonard), Fox Valley Sinful (Kyle Wilfong) and Sports Creek (Tyler Shehan).

In race six second split, you’ll find Al’s Briefs (Travis Seekman), with the pole position and to his right are Shooting Straight (Casey Leonard), Backstreet Lawyer (Kyle Husted), You’remyhearthrob (Kyle Wilfong), Fox Valley Hangten (Juan Franco), Ernie The Mooss (Gary Rath), Herecomesmagotta (Tim Curtin) and Perky Pipsqueak (Tyler Shehan).

Can They Take Out the Trash? A $10,000 Open I Handicap Pace headed up by the Leonard Stable’s Trashytonguetalker (Casey Leonard), will also spice-up the 11-race card. After a dominating 1:52.1 victory two weeks ago in his first start back in three months, Trashytounguetalker was assigned the outside 7-slot in the fourth race secondary feature.

In seven season starts, all at Hawthorne, Trashytonguetalker has made five stops at the winner’s circle while banking over $18,000.

The Jim Eaton Stable’s Caviart Midnight, who owns a 1:51 flat clocking at Ohio’s Miami Valley Raceway among his four wins, was assigned the six-post.

The first five Open Pace slots will be manned by: Southwind Indy, Bettor’s Promise, He Gone Jack, I’m An Athlete and Terror Of The Night.

Also to be decided Friday night, is a pair of $10,000 Cicero Claiming Series finals. The colt and gelding division is the second half of the early Daily Double, while the ninth race showdown for fillies and mares starts tonight’s Pick Three.