Away We Go A (driven here by Marcus Miller) became the eighth different horse to win the Open at Hawthorne’s winter meet. (Four Footed Fotos)

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

  In past years it was common to see horses that began to tower above others in Hawthorne’s Open Pace, trigger its Race Office to take steps to make the top overnight event more competitive.

  After two consecutive Open victories, a horse was assigned the outside post. A third win and more drastic steps were taken such as giving that horse the 10-hole even if that field had only 7 or 8 horse fields, or sometimes just offer an Open Two event that weekend, writing-out the dominating horse.

  However, this year the Race Office hasn’t had to generate tactics it likely doesn’t want to make for a competitive Open on the card. A repeat winner this season in the Open takes place less often as our Bears winning two in a row . . . it hasn’t happened.

  In fact, in he first ten Opens at the meet, only one horse, Great Seats, as won the top Hawthorne overnight event twice and that came about weeks apart. There have been eight different winners of the Open and a ninth is very possible Saturday night.

 The Triple ZZZ stable’s He’zzz A Wise Sky (Kyle Wilfong) will open as the 3-1 favorite in Saturday’s fifth race headliner and the Illinois champion as yet to pop at the current winter meet since he was put on Lasix last month.

 In his last two starts the pride of the John Filomeno stable has been overtaken in the late going after leading the field for much of his races. The homebred did come home in 26.3 last week but the 17-1 longshot two-hole Away We Go A, finished in 26 flat to power past the betting favorite.

 On thing that has been noticeable in He’zzz A Wise Sky’s last couple of outings. His second quarter times were much slower than normal for him, and the horses behind him didn’t have as much ground to make up. Perhaps the sub-freezing weather and/or some cold windy nights might have something to do with the ICF champ’s recent slower half-mile times of 57 flat.

 Let’s see how things play out tonight when He’zzz A Wise Sky takes on Round Here Buzz (Cordarius Stewart), Play Me Rock (Juan Franco), Fox Valley Landen (Kyle Husted), Truffle Dog (Mike Oosting), Hello Sweetie Boy (Travis Seekman), Intimidation (Todd Warren), Away We Go A (Wyatt Avenatti), and Quixote (Casey Leonard).

  Besides He’zzz A Wise Sky, the only other horses in the feature without an Open triumph at the current Hawthorne winter meet are Play Me Rock, who won the event three times in 2023, and Hello Sweetie Boy who has spent the year racing in Indiana and Ohio and has made only one local start. The Kimberly Roth pacer did notch a Hawthorne Open victory last season.