Hawthorne’s fifteen-day spring meet drew to a close today with three stakes races for Illinois-registered horses.

It was a red-and-green-letter day for the triumvirate of owner William Stiritz, trainer Scott Becker, and jockey Chris Emigh.  The three combined for two stakes wins today: Dandy Gal in the Third Chance Handicap, and Goneghost in the Milwaukee Avenue Handicap.  Both stakes winners were homebreds for Stiritz, from the final crop of his longtime stallion Cherokee Rap.  They all three accepted meet titles, as well.  With ten wins, Stiritz claimed leading owner honours for the meet.  Those same ten wins brought Scott Becker the training title.  Emigh, with his pair of stakes wins on the final day of the meet, ended the spring at Hawthorne with a meet-leading fourteen victories.

Read on at Picks and Ponderings, and catch up with the end of the Hawthorne Thoroughbred season before moving across town to Arlington on Friday!

Saturday is closing day of the all-too-brief Hawthorne spring meet.  After Saturday, the Thoroughbreds migrate north to Arlington, the main track surface at Hawthorne gets swapped out again, and standardbreds take centre stage at 35th and Cicero.

However, closing day features a slate of stakes races for older Illinois-registered horses.

The card includes a pair of six-furlong sprints, the Robert S. Molaro for ages four-and-up, and the fillies’ complement, the Third Chance Handicap.  The mile and a sixteenth Milwaukee Avenue Handicap is open to Illinois-breds aged three and up; the lower age limit makes sense, as there was no two-turn stakes for three-year-olds at Hawthorne.  There was a fillies’ complement in the condition book, The Peach of It Handicap, but it did not draw enough nominations to go.  The Peach of It’s loss is the Milwaukee Avenue’s gain: a pair of top-quality Illinois-bred mares, Prado’s Sweet Ride and Babybluesbdancing, will challenge the boys.

Head over to Picks and Ponderings, read my preview of Saturday’s closing day stakes at Hawthorne, and let me know your thoughts in the comments!

…more surprising was that no one who played the superfecta even had Silver Saver, Starship Brooklyn, Waddle, and Midnite In Miami in that order.  So, there’s a $9,693 carryover in the superfecta pool.  It goes right into the superfecta pool for Wednesday’s opener, and any and all players with a winning ticket can reap the benefits.

Wednesday’s opener is a turf dash for open $10,000 claimers.  This analysis is focused on the turf, since the weather is slated to be clear until late in the week, perfect for this Wednesday race to stay on the grass.

Read on at Picks and Ponderings, get to know the players in Wednesday’s opener, and get ready to hit the superfecta!

For a race in which she so easily towered on paper once her stablemate scratched, the start of the 2018 Pretty Jenny Stakes could hardly have been more difficult for Jean Elizabeth.

Unraced since a tour de force victory in an allowance optional claiming race at Hawthorne last October, she was fractious in her long-awaited return to a starting gate on race day.  “The gate guy was trying to get her head pointed straight ahead,” recalled jockey Julio Felix, “but when he got her straight she lunged and hit her head, hard, on the gate.”

From there, things went far better for the Larry Rivelli trainee.

Read on at Picks and Ponderings.

The stakes portion of the Hawthorne meet begins this weekend — and, for the first time since 2015, Hawthorne has scheduled three-year-old stakes races for Illinois-breds.  Though the Land of Lincoln was not carded for lack of nominations, the Pretty Jenny Stakes did draw enough runners and will be contested on Saturday.

Previously known as the Lady Hallie Stakes, the race has been restricted to Illinois-bred sophomore fillies since its 2004 running, and has taken Pretty Jenny’s name since its 2009 running.  Pretty Jenny, herself the Lady Hallie winner in 2005, was a 12-time winner in 32 starts between ages three and six.  She dominated the local filly and mare sprint circuit and also won stakes races at Churchill Downs and Prairie Meadows as an older horse.

Head over to Picks and Ponderings, read my preview of the 2018 Pretty Jenny Stakes, and let me know your thoughts in the comments!