The stakes calendar continues at Hawthorne this week with the Sun Power Stakes, a six-furlong test for Illinois colts and geldings.  It will be run this year for the first time since 2014, when Dom the Bomb romped to an easy 11 3/4 length victory.   Dom the Bomb, trained by Larry Rivelli at the time, is a half-brother to last week’s Showtime Deb Stakes winner Richie’slilwildcat.

Like last week’s Showtime Deb Stakes, the purse is $100,000: $75,000 available to Illinois-foaled horses no matter where they were conceived, and another $25,000 available to horses in the top five who were also sired by Illinois stallions.  Among the nine horses in the field, three qualify for that.  The entrants owned by William Stiritz and trained by Scott Becker — CALEB’S HEIR, GHAALEB’S WINNER, and GITA’S LAD — are all by Stiritz’s Belleville, Illinois-based stallion Ghaaleb.

Head over to Picks and Ponderings, read my preview of Saturday’s Sun Power Stakes — and let me know your thoughts in the comments!