Hawthorne Race Course

Contact: Jim Miller
(708) 780-3700

Turf course greening up at Hawthorne

Back-to-back beautiful days and it was nice looking at the turf course and already seeing it green up. While it is far too early to think about running on the turf, the thoughts of some April grass racing have entered my mind. We will see how the weather goes over the next couple of weeks and have a better idea as to if we will see turf racing at Hawthorne this spring or not.

Looking back at Tuesday, the track played perfectly even all day long. Horses won from all points of the field and of the racetrack as I expect much of the same again today. Jockey Tim Thornton had a riding double on the card and trainer Larry Rivelli posted a double as well. Rivelli is having a tremendous meet with 10 wins from 22 starts, moving him into fifth in the standings. He is winning at a 45% clip for the meet and looks to continue his winning trend with Economic Bailout in today’s opener.

We have a pair of fine allowance races to close out the card as the eighth is a second-level Illinois-bred allowance and the ninth is a fine $30,000 optional claimer. In the ninth, there is a ton of speed, but keep an eye on #6 – Mclard as he looks for his third straight win with hopes of using this race as a springboard to a start in the Grade III $500,000 Illinois Derby on April 3.

Changes

Main Track – Fast

Race 1

Scratch #3 – Harbor Win

Race 3

Scratch #4 – Crystal Honor

Race 4

Scratch #4 – Absolutely Ali

Race 5

Scratch #7 – Africa On My Mind

Race 6

Scratch #4 – Mr. Canyon Run

Race 9

Scratch #10 – Badger Bo

Best Bets

Race 7 – #7 – Princess Freebie – A fine field of $25,000 claimers with a decent amount of early pace. The one who looks to be the quickest to the front is #7 – Princess Freebie. She was impressive in her debut against maiden claimers and while she is bred to go long, that sprint effort merits another look for her in here. Riggs continues to ride very well and I expect another sharp effort today.

Race 9 - #2 – Ravensworth – This runner got hung wide while trying to close on the day where speed held well this meet. The track played very evenly yesterday and he draws better as well. With a ton of pace in this race, I expect things to fall apart and look for Ravensworth to come charging in the lane.