Hawthorne Racecourse (3/24/10)
Contact: Jim Miller
(708) 780-3700
Illinois Derby nominations to be posted today
Another nice day with a fast track at Hawthorne as the Illinois Derby is quickly approaching. The Derby is just over a week away as the field is starting to assemble for our race. Along with the Grade III $500,000 event, the $50,000 Cryptoclearance Stakes for older runners will take place on Derby Day as well.
Later today, the list of nominations will be sent out and posted in our News section for the Illinois Derby and you can also find them on our website under the “Horsemen” tab.
On Tuesday, The Pick 6 fell but the Place Pick 9 managed to carry over and we enter today with a healthy carryover of $5,796. The wager will be tough to hit today but I expect a very nice pool. A pair of riders had doubles on the Tuesday card as Eddie Perez took back third in the standings by himself while riding the early double, and Brandon Meier got good efforts out of Moralist in victory in the day’s co-feature and aboard Kemp.
Don’t forget that we add live racing on Sunday of this week with a 1:35 pm first post, then after being off from live racing on Easter Sunday, we will add Sundays for the remainder of the meet.
Changes
Main Track – Fast
Race 1
Scratch #3 – Marcus Aurelius
Race 3
Scratch #4 – A Fleets Escape
Race 6
Scratch #2 – Forthelonghaul
Race 8
Scratch #5 – Optimistic Sreva
Best Bets
Race 2 - #1 – C Saga Ryder – The rail runner in this spot looks to get a perfect trip from just off a contested pace as he posted a near miss in his last. Razo riding well over the past week and the two weeks between starts fits this one well.
Race 8 - #2 – Superior Attitude – Roussel always comes in ready to run and this one fits off a pair of efforts in New Orleans this past fall. She has a victory over this Hawthorne strip and this is another race with a ton of pace, setting things up for her to stalk and pounce in the lane.
