Brooklyn Bridge A (No. 7) looks to get back on the winning track in Sunday's Open Pace at Hawthorne.

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

 The Open Pace returns to Hawthorne on Sunday afternoon after a two-week hiatus due to an insufficient number of entries. That wasn’t the case this time around has nine horses, five of them Australian breds, were submitted for the sixth race feature.

  The Down Under pacers have won the last three Opens, and 4 of the last 5, contested on Hawthorne’s mile oval and while it’s no sure thing, chances are that trend likely will continue today.

 The first six posts were drawn, and they’ll be manned by Sanday A (Casey Leonard), Round Here Buzz (Cordarius Stewart), Montana Chief A (Todd Warren), Ben Racin (Mike Oosting), Clearchoice De Vie (Wyatt Avenatti), Mustang Beach (Travis Seekman) and Anotherstatement A (Brandon Bates), a very competitive second in the last two local Opens.

 Brooklyn Bridge A (Kyle Wilfong) and Away We Go A (Juan Franco) drew for posts 8 and 9 with the former, the winner of both the December 21st and January 11th, winning that draw, putting the January 26th victor on the outside looking in. Both Aussie pacers are trained by veteran horseman Ronnie Roberts for Addison, Illinois proprietors Castaldo Racing Stable. They also own the Western Terror 9-year-old gelding Sanday A, driven for the first time by Casey Leonard.

 Former Chicago circuit trainer champion Perry Smith also has a threesome in the Open field, that he owns—Round Here Buzz, Ben Racin, and Mustang Beach.

 The move to the outside post is significant for Away We Go A who will be without his regular driver Marcus Miller. The 7-year-old gelding boasts a pair of Open triumphs at the Hawthorne winter meeting; however, both came with two-hole journeys. Getting on, or close the front today, looks like a arduous task.

 Both Brooklyn Bridge and Anotherstatement came away from the gate quickly in their last Open start, and could be going out again this afternoon, and they won’t be alone.

  Sunday’s 12:30 pm first post was an easy decision for management to make with most of the county’s attention on the Super Bowl later in the day and could have been announced weeks ago.

  Sunday’s second feature is leg one the Springfield Pop-Up series for horses with a Trackmaster rating of 82 or less (84 for ICF horses), producing a 10-horse eighth race field of some nice pacers.

 The early favorite is the Somestarsomewhere 4-year-old Sailor Sam gelding who has been pacing up a storm lately for Springfield, IL based horseman Tom Simmons. Brandon Bates took over the driving chores on Sailor Sam in mid-January and after the pacer dropped a head decision, he has breezed in his two latest outings.

 Also expected to get plenty of the public’s support is Real Cool Cole (Todd Warren), making his debut for trainer Perry Smith after being claimed for $12,000 a week ago. The 5-year-old gelding was first plucked out of a $8,000 claiming event on December 23rd by trainer Terry Leonard, chalking up two wins, a second, and a third last week despite pacing a rapid 27 flat last quarter for the Harvard, Illinois resident.

 The $8,000 pot also attracted Genie Ina Bottle (Cordarius Stewart), Rock Steady Ron (Kyle Wilfong), Mr Charisma (Brandon Bates), Dragon Perfect (Juan Franco), Flickadawrist (Casey Leonard), Fox Valley Steeler (Kwon Waldron), Fox Valley Cayman (Wyatt Avenatti) and Major Attribute (Travis Seekman).