Illinois Harness
Horsemen's Association
Illinois Harness
Horsemen's Association
Mike Paradise
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For many Illinois horses going from last week’s Phil Langey Memorial final on Hawthorne’s ICF Night of Champions to an Open Pace a weekend later would be akin to moving from “the frying pan into the fire,” but that’s not the case for Fox Vally Landen or Fox Valley Langley.
Three drivers—Kyle Wilfong, Casey Leonard, and Marcus Miller—drove 10 of the 12-winning horses on Saturday’s Night of Champions at Hawthorne. Wilfong brought home four champions while Leonard and Miller each had a driving triple.
Illinois most anticipated evening of harness racing has arrived with Hawthorne’s Night of Champion. Over $1.5 million of purses will be on the line tonight when an even dozen ICF champions will be decided.
Going into last weekend’s final legs of Hawthorne’s Night of Champions series it was “touch and go” whether or not the Gary Rath stable’s 3-year-fily pacer Amy Moose was going to be a finalist in the Plum Peachy championship.
Tonight’s entire Saturday 10 race card at Hawthorne will provide the last opportunity for state-bred 2-year-olds of both sexes and gaits to come up big and earn a starting berth in their respective divisions of next Saturday’s Night of Champion series.
Which 3-year-olf Illinois bred pacers and trotters will move on to the Hawthorne’s Night of Champions finals will be known after Friday night’s leg four of the series.
The heavy favorite Fox Valley Landen and the 14-1 longshot Rock It out won their respective Opens Friday night at Hawthorne. Both horses were preparing for next weekend’s Night of Champions elimination events for state-bred older pacers.
Now that the dust has settled concerning Fox Valley Julian’s victory that ended Gorgeous Big Guy’s winning streak at 16 in a row, driver Casey Leonard gave us some insight on the stunning development in the Illinois 3-year-old male pacing division.
The old adage “all good things must come to an end” held true as the Mike Brink trained Fox Valley Julian, nicely handled by driver Casey Leonard, handed the 1-5 prohibitive favorite Gorgeous Big Guy his first loss in a division of the Robert F. Carey Memorial series at Hawthorne Saturday night after 16 consecutive victories.
The 2024 Hawthorne harness racing meeting returns to its home base in Chicago’s near west suburb of Stickney IL this weekend with leg three of its Night of Champions stake series. First post is at 7:10 pm.
It’s the last three days of Hawthorne’s 2024 downstate harness racing meetings. Next week Illinois Standardbred racing shifts to the Hawthorne facility just outside Chicago’s western city limits where at long last pari-mutuel wagering returns to the Prairie state after an eight-month hiatus and racing goes on rain or shine.
Leg two of Hawthorne’s Night of Champions series for 3-year-old Illinois bred pacers and trotters is in the history books and in several events Wednesday at Springfield horses that would have been the betting favorites, if there was wagering, took it on the chin.