Hawthorne Race Course, dating back to May 20, 1891, begins the Chicago thoroughbred circuit’s final meeting of the year Friday. The meeting, which continues through Jan. 2, has racing Wednesday through Sunday until December when the track goes to a four-day week (Thursday through Sunday).
1. Hawthorne Gold Cup
The Grade II $750,000 race on Oct. 2 is the circuit’s most lucrative and prestigious dirt race and numbers among its winners such great horses as Kelso and Dr. Fager. During the 1990s it evolved into a prep for the Breeders’ Cup with Black Tie Affair, Buck’s Boy and Awesome Again heading the honor roll.
2. Robert F. Carey Memorial Handicap
The Oct. 9 Grade III $150,000 1-mile grass race honors the memory of Carey, who ran Hawthorne from 1947 until his death in 1980. Although the Carey’s alumni list doesn’t compare with that of the Gold Cup, it’s designed to be the Chicago steppingstone to the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
3. Hawthorne Derby
Unlike the Kentucky Derby, the Oct. 16 Grade III $250,000 race at Hawthorne is run on the grass course, and it’s one of the country’s richest races for 3-year-old turf specialists.
4. Breeders’ Cup simulcast
Horseplayers who can’t make it to Lone Star Park in suburban Dallas on Oct. 30 to see eight so-called “World Championship” races worth a total of $14 million in purses can watch the simulcast and make their bets at Hawthorne.
5. Illinois Festival of Racing
This is sort of a poor-rich-man’s Breeders’ Cup. The Nov. 13 card consists of six races with $100,000-added purses that are restricted to Illinois-bred horses.