Strictly for the Gals
By Mike Paradise
All the male horses stabled at Hawthorne will remain in their stalls Friday night when the track plays host to its version of “Gal’s Night Out.”
Each of the 12 races on the card are strictly for fillies and mares with the majority of them opening rounds of various Late Closer Series for the distaffers.
All together five different Late Closers for pacers get under way with the No. 16 event series for fillies and mares with over $1,000 in earnings per start the ninth race headliner.
Trainer Alex Adam has “double trouble” for the other seven mares in the race with Our Miss Lily (Casey Leonard) DP Angel (Kyle Wilfong) who both did very well at Hawthorne’s winter meet.
I made them the co-favorites in my line at 3-1 and 7-2, respectively.
Our Miss Lily won her first two starts of the meeting for Adam and then settled for second best against her stable-mate DP Angel on the closing night of that meeting in a “Winner’s Over” event.
DP Angel left Hawthorne for Indiana with back-to-back victories on the in-town big track. The 6-year-old mare has 21 career wins with almost $145,000 in lifetime earnings. Our Miss Lily, also a 6-year-old, has visited a winner’s circle 19 times while banking $122, 064.
The mare with the most career triumphs if the 9-year-old ICF mare Rev Me Up (10-1 Matt Krueger) with 43 of them. Her bankroll of $639,619 is also tops in the field. Trainer Kathy Millman brought Rev Me Up back to Illinois for the Hawthorne Series and the mare had company on the van-ride from Ohio.
Alibi Seelster (9-2, Travis Seekman), who does her best racing up-front, also shipped-in from Miami Valley Raceway and landed the eight-slot in the same Late Closer. The 5-year-old mare already has four season wins and over $25,000 on her 2016 card.
Making their first starts since the closing weekend of the winter meet are Merle Finn’s Wings (8-1, Tim Curtin) and Bernie and Deb Paul’s Seeyouatthefinish (6-1, Kyle Husted), an 11-time victor in 2015.
Scarlet B Silk (12-1, Todd Warren), Sir Lehigh Z Tam (10-1, Pat Curtin) and Feetonthedashboard (8-1, Dale Hiteman) complete the ninth race field.
The non-winners of four races or $20,000 series was split into two $8,000 divisions. They’ll go as race three and seven. The open company non-winners of two races or $10,000 lifetime also was split (races five and eleven).
The strictly ICF version of the NW of 2 series goes as a single 12-horse field in race seven. Event No. 15 for non-winners of $1,000 per start also has one division. Its ninth race starts the second {Pick 4 wager) on the program.
Hail the Winners: Thursday night first round Late Closer Series winners were Fox Valley Diamo (Casey Leonard), Hail Caesar (Travus Seekman), Mr Strata (Casey Leonard), Chocolate Surprise (Trenton Watson) in the trot events. Both Fox Valley Diamo and Hail Caesar hail from the Mike Brink stable.
In the Late Closer openers for pacers with a $5,000 price tags it was Mystical Walter (Casey Leonard) nosing out his Perry Smith stable-mate Charley’sfastcat (Kyle Wilfong) and the Kim Roth Stable’s 10-1 longshot Donald Himself (Kyle Wilfong) who proved best and wrapped up a starting berth in that $9,000 two weeks away.