Brandon Hanover (Toss Warren) goes after his second straight Jingle Bell series  win Friday night. (Four Footed Fotos).

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

 Friday’s second leg of the popular Jingle Bell series for pacing fillies or mares exceeded the first round as far as entries were concerned with four divisions necessary on tonight’s Hawthorne’s nine-race card.

 With a trio of Jingle Bell series hopefuls entered for the male division, only Friday’s $11,100 Open Pace and a low-end conditioned pace were needed to fill the program.

 The first of the four filly series splits is the opener where the pre-race favorite Chickabell looks for a repeat victory that she barely eked out a week ago with driver Todd Warren and this time she’ll have to do it from the outside eight-slot.

 The 2023 ICF freshman filly pacer of the year has had an up and down campaign in her second season; however, it’s definitely been up over the last two months with three victories in her last four starts for trainer Amy Husted. Chickabell will be the 5-2 first flash favorite tonight.

 The Tom Simmons trained First Of Her Name (Travis Seekman) opens at 7-2 despite being winless in 20 season starts. The Unlocked filly lacked racing room as her division favorite in leg one. For that matter, so did Fox Valley Tasha (Marcus Miller), owned and trained by Kevin Miller.

 Amy Mooss, from the barn of trainer Gary Rath, is the early 5-2 betting choice in the second filly division after a easy 1:55.3 victory in a Hawthorne conditioned event. Earlier she won a leg of Hawthorne’s Plum Peachy series.

 The fourth race third division has Perry Smith’s She’s Magical (Todd Warren) opening at 3-1, followed closely by Give Me This Dance (Casey Leonard) with the pole position and former Illinois champion Fox Valley Exploit (Marcus Miller) with the eight hole, both at 7-2.

 Early favoritism in the fourth filly grouping goes to the Hector Herrera trained mare JD’s Queen Lori (Wyatt Avenatti) who finished the runner-up in her Hawthorne season debut leaving from the 9-slot after campaigning all summer at Hoosier Park. She has the 3 post tonight

 Leg two of the Jingle Bell for colts and geldings will be contested as races 5, 7 and 8.

 The wide-open fifth race has Windy City Farm’s Shipwrecked (Juan Franco) the early2-1 choice despite landing the outside 9-position, The 3-year-old gelding overcame the 6 slot in his 1:54.3 victory in a conditioned pace.

 The seventh race split looks to have the post time favorite come from the first three posts that belong to Too Infinity (5-2, Travis Seekman), Fox Valley Presley (2-1, Casey Leonard) and last week’s leg one winner Allegheny Hanover (3-1, Todd Warren).

The eighth race early choice is Brandon Hanover, a front-end 1:55.3 winner in leg one with Todd Warren who is back at the 9-year-old’s lines. Also likely to get plenty of play are the two outside pacers, Marshall Malone (Marcus Miller) and 13-time season winner Vertical Speed (Kyle Wilfong). Marcus was listed on both horses and chose to drive Marshall Malone who was much the best for him in leg one’s 1:54.2 triumph.

 The third race Open headliner has eight starts, drawn by groups with the 1 through 6 posts manned by Intimidation (Tood Warren), Play Me Rock (Juan Franco), Hello Sweetie Boy (Travis Seekman), Round Here Buzz (Cordarius Stewart), Bet Mine (Jordan Patton) and Away We Go A (Marcus Miller).

 Illinois champion He’zzz A Wise Sky (Kyle Wilfong) nabbed the seven-slot over last week’s Hawthorne Open winner Quixote (Casey Leonard) who goes from the pole position to the outside eight slot this week.