Archived Notes and Quotes

By Mike Paradise   When the Merv Chupp Stable’s veteran trotter Pine Dream was retired prior to the 2022 racing season, his owner and conditioner faced a tough assignment replacing who I called the barn’s more

By Mike Paradise   A horse’s four-year-old campaign is often a pivotal one. Many horses don’t do as well the first go around against older horses as they did as a three-year-old. Some do. Rarely more

By Mike Paradise   Two-time defending Illinois Harness Horse of the Year He’zzz A Wise Sky returns to the races Thursday afternoon at Springfield after a two-week layoff to make his second start in the more

By Mike Paradise   It’s “D-Day” for Illinois horsemen. That “D” is for decision time by the Illinois Racing Board for allocation of both the Standardbred and thoroughbred racing dates for 2023.   Unlike some more

By Mike Paradise   When the balloting gets under way later in the season for the 2022 Illinois Harness Horse of the Year, one of the prime contenders should be the gifted three-year-old trotter Lousdobb more

By Mike Paradise   Illinois harness racing picks up where it left off at the Hawthorne meet with programs on two afternoons a week for the next three weeks on Springfield’s state fairgrounds.   They’re more

By Mike Paradise   Kyle Wilfong was “The Man” Saturday night, driving six winners on Hawthorne’s Night of Champions. The 31-year-old Illinois native also had four of his horses finish second on the 12-race card. more

By Mike Paradise   The curtain is coming down on Hawthorne’s 2022 Standardbred meeting but before it does there’s over $1.2 million in purse money on the line in Saturday’s Night of Champions with 12 more

By Mike Paradise     Illinois based horseman Nelson Willis has been around a long time and like many veteran trainers he knows to have his horses as sharp as possible at the right time more

By Mike Paradise   It’s been said hundreds of times “you just don’t know what will happen in a horse race” and last weekend’s Night of Champions eliminations at Hawthorne demonstrated it once again.   more

By Mike Paradise   The filly and mare finalists for next Saturday’s Night of Champions were determined last night at Hawthorne with elimination races in three Illinois bred stake divisions.   However, the star of more

By Mike Paradise   It’s “Girls Night Out.” We’re talking about the four-legged kind for Saturday night.   A portion of Hawthorne’s ten race card will determine which freshman filly pacers and trotters will be more

By Mike Paradise   As I flipped a page on my calendar to today’s date, I couldn’t help but think “where does the time go.” It’s already September and there’s just two weeks left at more

By Mike Paradise   To go to the “Big Dance” you need an invitation. Likewise, to get into Hawthorne’s Night of Champions finals you need to pass your elimination test to be invited.   In more

By Mike Paradise   Illinois bred veteran trotter Talk About Valor continued his season dominance at Hawthorne while the Australian bred newcomer Im Sir Blake A, showed his Aussie back class in his local debut more

By Mike Paradise   With a hot summer day (86 degrees) with a high humidity (89%), there was plenty of horses, horsemen and racing fans perspiring at Saturday’s Du Quoin State Fair meet and that’s more

By Mike Paradise   It’s Championship Day at the Du Quoin State Fair nestled in the southern tip of Illinois. Rich in tradition and boasting a fast one-mile racing strip on its fairgrounds, ten ICF more

By Mike Paradise   With two Illinois State Fair championships on their recent list of accomplishments, the Midwest Division of the Erv Miller Stable, operated by Atlee Bender and his wife Hanna Miller, look to more

By Mike Paradise   Donna Holt’s Rock It Out, the pre-race favorite in tonight’s $12,300 featured Open Pace and fillies and mares, has shown plenty of tenacity on the race track this year, pacing a more

By Mike Paradise   Under ideal weather conditions (sunny and 81 degrees), eight state-bred Standardbreds were crowned Illinois State Fair Colt Stakes champions Thursday afternoon on a tip-top racing surface.   Here’s how things unfolded more

By Mike Paradise   Summer if flying by much too fast.   It’s already the final day of racing this season at the Illinois State Fair which means Hawthorne has less than a month of more

By Mike Paradise   It was the University of Illinois Day at the 2022 State Fair while on the racetrack the focus was on the “Senior Citizens” of the state-bred Standardbred colony.   Four Illinois more

By Mike Paradise   While the top ICF three-year-olds pacers are prepping this afternoon for next week’s Illinois State Fair Colt Stake showdowns, the older state bred horses will be competing in a quartet of more

  By Mike Paradise   The Illinois Standardbred spotlight shines on Springfield today and Saturday. The 10-race Friday card will have eight elimination events for ICF two-year-olds of both sexes and gaits along with a more

By Mike Paradise   There’s an old saying that “Consistency is the Key to Success.” It certainly is in horse racing and Kyle Husted’s Fox Valley Exploit is a great example of the idiom.   more

By Mike Paradise   July of 2022 is one month Illinois trainer Curt Grummel will never forget. The 50-year-old horseman sent out not one but two of the recent $50,000 summer champions at Hawthorne.   more

By Mike Paradise   It’s a rare weekend at Hawthorne without any ICF stake races on the next couple of cards.   With Springfield opening six days from now much of the state-bred freshman crop more

By Mike Paradise   It was a perfect ending for “chalk” players in Saturday night’s $50,000 Fox Valley Flan summer trotting championship for two-year-old state bred fillies when Marvelous Mystery (Kyle Wilfong) crossed the finish more

By Mike Paradise   Perfection is what we all strive for in most everything we do. While it’s not realistic for a racehorse to be perfect throughout his or her career, staying flawlessness for as more

  By Mike Paradise   “Doc” and Pat Walker, owners of Fox Valley Standardbreds in Sherman, Illinois, will be doing a lot of rooting during Friday’s $50,000 Summer Incredible Finale stake championship.   The question more