Those who think of Hawthorne in the late fall as a dreary place would have had a hard time recognising it during today’s Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante.  The mercury rose into the mid-fifties, light bathed the fast dirt course, and the enthusiasm of Bob and Lynda Esposito beamed more brightly than the sun as their filly Cowgirl Callie held off a dogged inside challenge from Royal’s Position to take the Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante.

Head over to Picks and Ponderings, and relive the heart-pounding stretch drive in this year’s Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante!