Jewels for Champ’s (Marcus Miller) win in the last Hawthorne Open for trotters has made it the new “Top Gun” in his division. (Four Footed Fotos)

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

 There’s a new “Top Gun” in the Illinois trotting ranks and at one time in 2023 he had a 10-race losing streak and didn’t get a check in most of those disappointing starts.

 We’re heralding the arrival of the Tom Simmons trained 4-year-old Jewels For Champs after the gelding took over the top spot two weeks ago when the latest Hawthorne Open trot was contended. The 1:56.4 victory ended a three-week dominance in the local Open trotting ranks by Brookview Bolt from the barn of conditioner Ronnie Roberts.

 Jewels For Champ will have to wait another week to defend his new title. Hawthorne’s Open for trotters didn’t fill enough to be carded this weekend.

 Meanwhile, it’s been a roller coaster career thus far for Jewels for Champ however if his recent races could indicate the best is yet to come for the trotter who sold for $32,000 as a yearling, a tidy sum these days for an Illinois bred unraced trotter.

 Unraced as a 2-year-old, it didn’t take long for Jewels For Champ to raise some eyebrows when his racing career did get started. Last spring, in just his third lifetime outing, the trotter won impressively in 1:55.4 at Hoosier Park for his first owners the Erv Miller Stable and Marty Engle of Northbrook, Il.

  The ICF youngster trotted a 28 flat last quarter in his winning debut and followed it with an easy 1:59.4 triumph at Du Quoin in a non-wagering race for state-breds with Cordarius Stewart at the lines.

 Little did his owners or anybody else know Jewels For Champ would fail to win a race for 10 more frustrating consecutive starts, going off stride in most of those losses. Equipment changes were made, different drivers tried guiding the unpredictable trotter, but to no avail.

 It wasn’t until the last leg of the Erwin F. Dygert Memorial stake series early last November that Jewels For Champ put it all together for driver Marcus Miller and ended the nightmarish losing streak. He did it from the nine-hole, pretty much circling the field and drawing off in 1:57.2. The impressive outing earned him the role of the favorite a week later in the $134,744 Dygert championship. However, once again he went off stride and was distanced in the race.

 Few knew it would be all good for Jewels For Champ since then. In his last five starts for the Miller stable, the trotter would chalk up four wins and a second, ending up earning the stable $47,319 in his initial season of racing,

 Jewels For Champ was acquired by trainer Tom Simmons for out-of-state owners Adam Hawthorne (Winnsboro, Louisiana) and Jade Hadfield (West Haven, Utah) on December 17th, and has gone on to post two more first place finishes and a second in three outings for his new barn.