20 Apr 2018

By Mike Paradise With opening night of Hawthorne’s summer harness racing meet two weeks away Saturday’s Spring Review at the Springfield State Fairgrounds offered Illinois circuit horsemen a chance to pick-up some purse money before more

13 Apr 2018

By Mike Paradise After back-to-back career best years as a trainer Mississippi native Roshun Trigg has been busy this past winter in his home state preparing for summer harness racing in Illinois. The 40-year-old Trigg more

6 Apr 2018

By Mike Paradise When Hawthorne opens its summer harness racing meet on May 6th plenty of handicappers will become fixated on its 1,320 feet homestretch, currently the longest of any racetrack in North America with more

30 Mar 2018

By Mike Paradise While it may be true that statistics don’t lie, it’s also accurate that sometimes they can be a bit misleading. All harness racing tracks list in their program and/or their web-site the more

23 Mar 2018

By Mike Paradise When Illinois harness racing was given the boot after the 1997 season at Sportsman’s Park, all of its major stake events, including Super Night, were shifted over to Balmoral Park for 1998. more

16 Mar 2018

By Mike Paradise How knowledgeable are you on the history of harness racing on the Chicago circuit? We’ve put together 10 questions to test just how proficient you are and there are some tough ones, more

9 Mar 2018

By Mike Paradise What began at Sportsman’s Park as an evening of championship ICF Standardbreds in mid-September of 1989, evolved into the richest and most successful night in the history of Illinois harness racing. Super more

2 Mar 2018

By Mike Paradise For those of us who were involved in Illinois harness racing 26 years ago whether as a player, a horseman, an owner or perhaps as an employee, most will remember one major more

23 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise The trainer’s race for the top spot at the winter’s meet at Hawthorne turned out to be a nip and tuck battle with four barns all within a few winners of each more

19 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise The curtain comes down on the 2018 winter meet at Hawthorne. After Monday’s ninth and final race of the night is over the Chicago harness racing circuit will lie dormant for the more

18 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise Sagebrush Shocker and Fox Valley Skywalk came through with victories last night in their respective $25,000 Late Closer Finals for 3-year-old ICF pacers but there were some nervous moments for their supporters more

17 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise Who would have thought an ICF pacer without $10,000 in earnings at the end of his or her freshman season would be racing for a $25,000 pot on the Chicago circuit in more

16 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise The second legs of last weekend’s Terry Hunt Late Closers were supposed to give us a clearer picture of what to expect in Saturday’s $25,000 Final but instead they made the outcome more

15 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise The addition of Brandon Bates to the Hawthorne driver colony this year has been a winning situation for the Ohio native, Chicago Circuit trainers and their owners, along with the race track more

11 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise Sunday night’s second legs of the Terry Hunt Late Closers will likely determine the betting favorite for the upcoming $25,000 final of the ICF Series. First round action saw the heavy public’s more

10 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise After a two-day absence of racing when a strong snowstorm swept through the Chicago area forcing the cancellation of Thursday’s and Friday’s cards, the Hawthorne winter meeting resumes Saturday night with a more

8 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise As we head into the homestretch of Hawthorne’s winter meeting, the competition for the top trainer honors most likely will go to the final night of racing to determine who takes home more

4 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise With Sunday’s Super Bowl behind us Hawthorne’s winter meeting resumes with a rare Monday card tonight. The headliner is the $10,000 Open Trot however there’s another race for trotters on the 10-race more

3 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise Saturday has been “Girls Night Out” at Hawthorne winter meet and that’s the circumstances again tonight with the top races on card all for fillies and mares. The feature comes early with more

2 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise A trio of solid ICF pacers are back to their home state to compete tonight and interestingly the threesome of Gibbs, Dakota Roadster and Captain Rhett are all here by means of more

1 Feb 2018

By Mike Paradise It’s almost hard to believe the month of January is already in the rear view mirror. It only seems like a couple of weeks ago that Hawthorne’s winter meeting got under way, more

28 Jan 2018

By Mike Paradise Sunday night’s Hawthorne feature Open II Trot can be best described as a “head scratcher.” And that’s not a bad thing. Actually it’s a good thing since this headliner delivers not only more

27 Jan 2018

By Mike Paradise After back-to-back victories in the first two legs of the Tim Wilson Sr. Late Closer Series at double-digit odds perhaps the Gary Rath Stable’s C Far will get some recognition in Saturday’s more

26 Jan 2018

By Mike Paradise The first of two $25,000 Late Closer Finals for strictly ICF horses kick-off the weekend of harness racing at Hawthorne Friday night. Thanks to the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Standardbred more

25 Jan 2018

By Mike Paradise A half dozen Late Closer champions will be crowned at Hawthorne this weekend. The three series finals for pacing colts and geldings head-up Friday’s card, while a trio of filly and mare more

21 Jan 2018

By Mike Paradise Trainer Payton Ode is off to a terrific start at Hawthorne’s winter meet and Sunday night sends out major threats in both $12,000 Cicero Claiming Series Finals for horses that raced earlier more

20 Jan 2018

By Mike Paradise The $10,000 Open Pace for fillies and mares returns to Hawthorne Saturday night and the early feature will be supported by a trio of second round Late Closers events, also for the more

19 Jan 2018

By Mike Paradise When was the last time you saw $10,000 claimers racing for a $20,000 pot on the Chicago circuit? My memory isn’t what it used to be but I can’t recall it happening. more

18 Jan 2018

For Thursday, January 18, 2018 By Mike Paradise The Hawthorne harness racing winter meet is only two weeks old, but several conclusions already seem obvious. 1. Both the driver and trainer races will go down more

14 Jan 2018

By Mike Paradise This second time around for Sunday’s Open Trot feature race will have a much different look than it did a week ago. The $10,000 seventh race headliner has almost twice as many more