By Mike Paradise

We’ll see our first appearance of ICF two-year-old filly pacers tonight when eight of initial crop of freshmen go postward in the first leg of the Incredible Tillie stake series.

A purse of $17,500 is on the line for the young pacing gals as they begin their march to Hawthorne’s Night of Champions on September 19. It’s just the start of the juvenile racing season and we’ll probably see more NOC hopefuls by the time the second Incredible Tillie round comes around on July 10.

Despite what the Hawthorne morning line might indicate, Saturday’s Incredible Tillie is a take-your-pick affair. These
“green” fillies are just taking “baby steps” on their way to becoming race horses so let the learning process begin.

From the pole position out you’ll find Ryans Secret (Cordarius Stewart), Age Of Sage (Casey Leonard), Connie On The Go (Ridge Warren), Ryansmajesticrose (James Molitor), Kandi’s Fortune (Freddie Patton Jr.), Princess Mooss (Kyle Wilfong), Dandy’s Duchess (Jamaica Patton) and Clearly The Bomb (Todd Warren).

Ryans Secret, the younger sister of Roshun Trigg’s Ole Slot Machine (1:58), already has four starts at Springfield resulting in a trio of wins and a second.

Age Of Sage was an $16,000 yearling purchased by trainer Jim Eaton and Casey Leonard chose to drive her over the fillies Connie On The Go (Ridge Warren), the 2-1 morning line favorite, and Princess Mooss (Kyle Wilfong), a Gary Rath trainee who sold for $31,000.

Ryansmajesticrose, a Flacco Family Farms home-bred, is a daughter of Caribe Royale, making her the full sister of Royale Rose (1:50) and Royale Big Guy (1:51.4).

Clearly The Bomb is an Angie Coleman and Rob Rittoff home-bred with two encouraging qualifiers prepping for tonight’s debut.

Freddie Patton Jr’s Kandi’s Fortune benefits from a three Springfield starts. The filly was bought for $9,000 as a yearling.

On the other hand Dandy’s Duchess, trained by his driver Jamaica Patton brought a price of $40,000 at the Illini Classic Sale. She’ll open at surprising 30-1 programmed odds after she made an equipment break a few days competing at Springfield.

Plum Peachy Duels: Before the ninth race Incredible Tillie field goes to the gate we’ll know the outcome of the two $12,500 second round divisions of the Plum Peachy three-year-old pace events. They’ll go as races three and five with prohibitive favorites in each.

Sleazy Gal (Casey Leonard), the Violet bridesmaid, is listed at 4 to 5 from the two-post and those odds sound about right. Her opposition is Ashlee’s Fine Girl (Todd Warren), Amazon Princess (Ridge Warren), Dancin Eyes (Cornelius Cavett), Fox Valley Nia (Kyle Wilfong) and Mollie Hotspur (Cordarius Stewart).

Meanwhile the Kyle Husted stable’s Fox Valley Exploit so far has been much the best in the state’s second season filly class. After winning the first leg of the Plum Peachy series, she dominated last week’s Violet Pace, drawing off by more than four lengths on a sloppy rain-soaked track.

Fox Valley Exploit (pp 3) will also be at 4-5 first flash odds (I made her 3-5 in my line) after her two strong recent victories. Style And Spirit (Kyle Wilfong), Sign Her Up (Juan Franco), Castielle (Casey Leonard), Double Parked (Travis Seekman) and June Dale Gram (Cordarius Stewart) will provide the competition.

Take Your Pick: The $10,500 Open Trot returns as tonight’s second race with a six horse field. The Merv Chupp stable’s Pine Dream (Todd Warren) was assigned the outside six-slot by the Hawthorne Race Office. Posts one through five were drawn.

Louzotic (Kyle Husted) landed the rail with two more state-bred trotters—Louscardamon (Casey Leonard) and Annas Lucky Star (Kyle Wilfong–getting the two and three. She’s Got Bling (Travis Seekman) has the four post and another ICF trotter, Lourhianon (Tyler Shehan) drew the five.

Lourhianon finished first in last week’s Open raced in the rain on a sloppy track however the 77-1 longshot went inside some pylons in the first turn and was disqualified to second with Louzotic awarded her third victory in six season starts for trainer Steve Searle.

It’s a well-balanced field of trotters and you could make a case for any horse in it to come out on top.

On Big Baby Step: The Flacco Family Farms home-bred Ryans Loan Shark proved best in the first round of the Incredible Finale stake series for ICF colts and geldings.

Nicely rated by his driver Cordarius Stewart Ryans Loan Shark ($9.60) went wire-to-wire in his pari-mutuel debut, covering the mile in 2 :0.21 on a sloppy racing surface. Partyatmosaplace (Ridge Warren) put on a late burst to be second, beaten by almost two lengths. Prince Of Style (Kyle Wilfong) was third.

Chalk It Up: The heavy favorites Fox Valley Ren (Casey Leonard) and He’zzz A Wize Sky (Bobby Smolin) were easy winners in their respective second round divisions of the Robert F Carey Memorial stakes.

The 1 to 9 Fox Valley Ren ($2.10) won by more than eight lengths in 1:54.1 while He’zzz A Wise Sky ($2.40) powered past in the late going to be almost three lengths better than RG’s Tracer with a 15:3.4 clocking.

Another Gem: Fox Valley Gemini (Casey Leonard) used a 26.3 last quarter to capture his third straight Open Pace victory at Hawthorne, this one in 1:53.3. Castle Flight was scratched due to the sloppy race track conditions.

By Mike Paradise

One more, or less, entry into an ICF stake race can make a huge difference for an owner, a trainer, and those fans who like to wager on Illinois racing.

Don’t think so?

Well consider for the second consecutive Sunday an important state-bred trotting stake event— which there aren’t many now a days—will not offer wagering and probably won’t be seen by most of the owners of those participating trotters. Owners are currently not allowed on the backstretch unless they are an essential caretaker for a horse.

And don’t look for the result of the race tomorrow on the Hawthorne web-site because its posted charts don’t display non-wagering races. What’s more at least some ADW platforms, such as Express Bet (the one I use), do not make available these early stake events without betting on their “Replays,” so you can’t even view them later for handicapping purposes .

At a time we’re at an all-time low of ICF yearlings in our state do we really want to do anything that discourages owners from investing in our industry?

I think not.

Since it’s possible we won’t have any spectators allowed at Hawthorne for the entire meeting, maybe it’s a good idea to see if we can make all the rest of our ICF stake races wagering affairs, at least for this season so they can be available on ADW platforms.

At this crucial time the need for more races on a nightly program is very much necessary. The working people in our industry have been hit hard by the Covid-19 shutdown and additional races will give them the more needed racing opportunities to try out a living .The devastating virus has produced a lengthy lockdown, costing Illinois horsemen close to 40 days of racing and doing much the same to the other racing venues nation-wide.

The Hawthorne race office entry box has been overflowing every week since we’ve been back racing. It’s the same elsewhere in the country as well. The Meadowlands Friday and yesterday had huge 18-race programs while Northfield had an abundant 16 contests. The Pennsylvania tracks racing this Sunday have 14 race cards.

A possible solution to this problem on the local scene is to race ICF stakes with less than full fields early with wagering making for some 15-race Sunday betting cards. The second round for the three-year-olds march to the Night of Champions is back on the agenda next weekend and the ICF two-year-olds stakes begin on July 10. For that matter, from July 10 to the end of that month there are state-bred stakes every weekend, perhaps some again with not very large fields.

During these extraordinary and troubling times perhaps Hawthorne management and the IHHA could get together and agree and request the Illinois Racing Board an earlier 6:30 Sunday post for 15-race wagering programs until August. I’m thinking a likely sympathetic IRB would probably grant their wishes.

It’ll make for a long day at the track for some horsemen but long days are commonplace for most who work in our industry. For example today many drivers and trainers have to be at the track in the early afternoon with seven qualifiers for two-year-olds set to be run off starting at 3:30 pm. The last Sunday wagering race will go off after 11:30.

Problems have solutions, so let’s quickly get our current dilemma fixed.

Worth Watching: With one less horse (11) in tonight’s Cardinal trotting stake than last week’s first leg (12) of the Erwin Dygert stake series, the three-year-old event for male trotters goes for a pot of $45,900 and as Sunday’s tenth race. Last week’s Opening round on the road to the Night of Champions quietly went off non-betting around 6:30 pm.

The Tom Simmons Stable’s Fox Valley Quest will try to make it back-to-back stake victories after winning his division a week by almost six lengths in 1:57.4. However, last year’s ICF freshman male trotter of the year landed the eight-slot in the 11-horse field, so he could have his work cut out to repeat.

Desert Sheik (Brandon Bates) who had a game neck triumph (1:59) in his Dygert division didn’t draw much better with the seven. Desert Sheik is one of four Mike Brink trained trotters in the Cardinal. Stable-mate Crooked Creek (Mike Oosting), a 2019 Night of Champions winner has the two-post after going off a stride a week ago. Brink also sends our Fox Valley Briton (pp 3, Todd Warren) and On Higher Ground (pp 11, Kyle Wilfong).

Rounding out the Cardinal trot are Easy EO (Tyler Shehan), Fox Valley Kobe (Kyle Wilfong), Mr Red Thunder (Richard S Finn), Lou Pascal (Cordarius Stewart), Lou Merlin (Jerome Daniels) and Fitchey For Fun (Juan Franco).

Not for Viewing: What most us will miss watching Saturday’s two early non-wagering divisions of the $21,650 Violet trots. The first consists of Tropical Rosie (Cordarius Stewart), Princess Poprocks (Freddie Patton Jr.), Bee See (Kyle Husted), Really Railee (Bobby Smolin), Lous Cover Girl (Mike Rogers) and Reign And Shine (Juan Franc).

The second $21,650 split brings out the first four finishers in last week’s Beulah Dygert—Fox Valley Extacy (Brandon Bates), Fox Valley Lush (Kyle Wilfong), Lous Abigail (Casey Leonard) and Celone Hall (Mike Oosting). The field also has El Oh Govenor (Mike Rogers) and Lous Flashy Dancer (Tyler Shehan).

Sound like a very good race to watch and wager on.

Unfortunately you can’t.

No Surprises: Saturday night’s Cardinal and Violet stakes for ICF 3-year-old pacers went to RG’s Tracer (Travis Seekman), Fox Valley Ren (Kyle Wilfong) and Fox Valley Exploit (Kyle Husted).

RG’s Tracer ($3.40) won his $21,450 Cardinal division I front-end fashion as did Fox Valley Ren ($4.20) in his 1:53.3 split. The latter went unchallenged through slow middle quarters (29.4 and 30.1) and finished with a sizzling 25.2 last panel to hold off the same fast closing time of runner-up He’zzz A Wise Sky (Bobby Smolin) in the 1:53 flat mile.

Fox Valley Exploit ($2.80) overtook the pace-setting Sleazy Gal (Casey Leonard) in the lane and drew off by four-plus lengths in her 1:55.2 Violet triumph for driver and trainer Kyle Husted. The Violet and other later races were contested on a sloppy surface after rain pelted the racetrack about mid-way of the 13-race card.

By Mike Paradise

There’s a whole assortment of interesting races on the horizon this weekend at Hawthorne and they range from low-end Mini-Series events all the way up to the first major stake races of the summer for ICF pacers and trotters.

The weekend’s pinnacle of the racing spectrum is the Cardinal and Violet stakes, with the pacers grabbing the public eye on Saturday. The state-bred second season trotters take over center stage on Sunday evening when they square off for their own $40,000-plus pots.

The Friday feature was to be an $8,800 Open II Handicap Pace but when a less than expected seven eligible horses were entered it was scrapped. Instead we have co-features tonight, a pair of conditioned paces primarily for non-winners of $4,000 (ICF $5,000). Both $6,500 events have full 10-horse fields and don’t let the moderate pot fool you because there are plenty of good horses in the two fields.

In fact, of the 20- horses going postward in the co-headliners, three-quarters of them (15) have competed in Open Paces or higher this year or last, and with no stick-out in either contest it makes for some very competitive slugfests.

The fifth race co-feature will line-up this way: Rocky Regal (Travis Seekman), Kelly D, (Todd Warren) Hot Rod Dylan (Juan Franco), Park Official (Kyle Wilfong), Fox Valley Triton (Casey Leonard), Sir Mammo (Tyler Shehan), Bettor’s Promise (Ryan Anderson), On Duty (Jim Lackey), Terror Of The Nite (Bobby Smolin) and Bright Future (Kyle Husted).

The ninth race second division field, from one through ten, has Rock Steady on (Cliff Bell), He Gone Jack (Ridge Warren), Shark Play (Tyler Shehan), American Chrome (Kyle Wilfong), Late Night Joke (Todd Warren), Northern Angle (Cordarius Stewart), Parklane Eagle (Juan Franco), Ponda’s Prospect (Casey Leonard) and Dash Of Danger (Kyle Husted).

Popular Event: Leg two of the Club Hawthorne Mini Series for pacing colts and geldings saw such an abundant number entries (35) that it had to be split into four divisions. They’ll go tonight as races one, three, six and eleven with $5,000 purses. A small $25 entry fee, along with being a non-winner of $750 (ICF $940) per start in 2019 and 2020 combine, got a horse a starting berth.

Pay to Play: It’ll take a $400 entry payment along with an earlier $200 nomination fee to compete in the Cardinal and Violet stakes either on Saturday or Sunday. The Violet for three-year-old Illinois pacing fillies carries a $43,300 purse while the Cardinal pacing colts and gelding stake offers a pair of $21,450 purses.

Trio of Showdowns: Three Late Closer pacing finals will be scattered throughout Saturday’s program, the $14,800 Bob Larry Pace, the $12,800 Walter Paisley and the Dave Magee. Also on the Saturday card are the first legs of the Cicero ($10,000) Claiming Series, each with a $10,000 purse.

Looking Good: Last Sunday’s handle was another good one. Over $1.25 million was wagered on another 13-race card. The first Sunday handle since the restart of racing saw $1.5 million go through the Hawthorne mutuel system.

Mighty Nice Return: On Sunday we had another Mike’s Price Shot” winner when Mighty Tony Mac (Travis Seekman) popped at a $20.20 mutuel in race seven. Our other two price shots Fox Valley Mundo and Kinda Like Kori, finished second at 9-1 and third at 7-2 in their respective races.