Officials with Hawthorne Race Course had their work cut out for them to kick off the New Year: Turn a dirt Thoroughbred track into Standardbred racecourse in under one week’s time. The Illinois raceway was well under the wire in its endeavour, as it got the job done in roughly four days.
Jim Miller – who as close as it gets to being Hawthorne’s official ‘Jack of All Trades’ – discussed the impressive turnaround with Comcast Sportsnet’s SportsTalk Live prior to the track’s meet-opening harness card which went forth this past Friday (January 8). The program was the first time that the track had hosted live Standardbred racing in eight years.
In regard to the turnover of the racing surfaces, Miller didn’t downplay the significance of the task. “It was a big undertaking,” he said, simply.
“It was one of those things where the Illinois Racing Board came to us and asked us, first of all, if we would be willing to take it on, and we said ‘definitely, we’ll do so.’ The amount of time that went into it – to turn this track over – well, we just raced Thoroughbreds last Saturday. After that, the Thoroughbreds got done last Saturday. We had eight inches of dirt on a one-mile oval that’s 90 feet wide to remove, quickly. We removed that in the winter conditions, and by Wednesday we had a harness track ready to go, horses on the track, and we’re ready to roll tonight.”
In the interview, Miller pointed out that the length of the Hawthorne stretch could prove to be a great equalizer.
“It’s a full quarter-of-a-mile stretch at Hawthorne,” he said. “What that kind of means for those players out there is – a lot of time with short-stretch racing, the horses that are first or second by the time they get to the stretch are going to win the race. At Hawthorne, anybody has a shot. Anybody that is coming out to bet the races, you’re in it all the way until the end. Once they hit that stretch, these horses will fan out four and five across and then it is just a free for all to get to the wire.”
Neither rain, nor snow, nor sub-zero wind chills could stop the return of live harness racing to Hawthorne Race Course this past weekend, as the ‘Stickney Spa’ enjoyed a very successful opening weekend.
With a nice crowd on hand braving day-long rain and sleet to witness the live racing card and all the on track festivities on Friday, January 8, Casey Leonard, last season’s driving kingpin on the Chicago circuit, put on quite a show as he bagged four straight wins to open the 2016 season. Leonard would pick up another victory behind Hudson Jesse in the featured seventh race to wind up with a five-bagger on the night.
On Saturday night (Jan 9) local fans had a good look at some of the top stables that have decided to call Hawthorne home for this winter-meet. National powerhouses like Rene Allard, Ron Burke and Ken Rucker all sent out winners on the 10-race card. The Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi’s Ontario Success turned in the most impressive score of the night, as he scooted to a front-stepping victory in the featured Open pace, tripping the timer in 1:53.4 for driver Sam Widger on a ‘sloppy’ track after heavy snow fell throughout the late afternoon and evening hours. Casey Leonard continued to weave his magic as well, piloting three more winners on the Saturday program. The up and coming Travis Seekman also had a driving double on Saturday, which included the longest price of the weekend as he lit up the board at $75.40 with the Rucker-trained Winning Dream in Race 4.
As if Mother Nature had not played enough tricks on the Chicago area, an arctic blast rolled through on Sunday, January 10, plunging temperatures into the single digits. Once again, the fabulous work of the track crew had the surface in tip-top shape though and driver Robert Smolin started out red-hot as he notched both ends of the early daily double and wound up with a driving triple for the night. Simon Allard began to familiarize himself to the Hawthorne winner’s circle with a driving double as did Kyle Wilfong. Leonard posted another victory as well, giving him a total of nine wins on opening weekend.
The support shown by the horsemen who dropped nearly 500 entries in the box for the opening weekend helped contribute to a 20 per cent increase in the anticipated handle at Hawthorne, despite the rough weather conditions. For those carryover seekers, the Jackpot High 5, which is a 20-cent wager, will have a carryover of more than $14,000 as Week 2 of the meet gets started.
Live racing will resume on Wednesday, January 13 with first post for the 10-race card at 7:20 p.m. (Central). Qualifiers will be held prior to the live card on Wednesday night with that action getting started at 6:00 p.m. (Central). Racing will be conducted on a Wednesday through Sunday schedule until Saturday, February 6. First-race post time is 7:20 p.m. (Central).
(With files from Hawthorne and Comcast Sportsnet)