Summer will be on its last legs when the thoroughbred meeting at Hawthorne Race Course leaves the starting gate Friday. When the meeting hits the finish line Jan. 13, it will be the dead of winter.
Hawthorne is Chicago racing’s track for all seasons. It began the Chicago thoroughbred year with a late-winter/early-spring meeting and then had a summer harness meeting.
The racing surface was stripped after the harness meeting ended Aug. 5 and “is in very good condition” for the resumption of thoroughbred racing, said Frank Kirby, Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association president.
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“They also did an excellent job of getting a new surface down on the turf course,” Kirby added.
For most horses that raced on Arlington Park’s new Polytrack during the last 4 1/2 months, the move to Hawthorne will entail an adjustment to running on a dirt track.
Although the Polytrack significantly reduced the number of fatal breakdowns at Arlington, some horses didn’t perform well on the surface.
The extension of the meeting until Jan. 13, approved Tuesday when the Illinois Racing Board drafted the 2008 schedule, is an attempt to curtail the migration to southern venues and keep more horses training at Hawthorne until racing resumes March 7. This would alleviate the horse shortage that in the past has been a problem at the start of the track’s winter/spring meeting.
For Hawthorne racing secretary Gary Duch, the January dates are on the back burner and the focus is on luring Kentucky Derby and Travers winner Street Sense for the Grade II $500,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup on Sept. 29. The 2006 national champion’s trainer, Carl Nafzger, and his owner-breeder, Jim Tafel of Barrington, also are considering Turfway Park’s Grade II $350,000 Kentucky Cup Classic on the same day and Belmont’s Grade I $750,000 Jockey Club Invitational on Sept. 30.
The ITHA will let Hawthorne take an additional $200,000 out of its purse account and put it in the Gold Cup pot if Street Sense runs and wins.
Finish lines
Street Sense has had two outstanding workouts this week at Churchill Downs. After working 4 furlongs in :48 3/5 Sunday, he did 5 furlongs in 1:00 3/5 Wednesday. … Frank Calabrese’s 2006 national champion, Dreaming of Anna, worked 5 furlongs in 1:00 1/5 Thursday at Arlington in preparation for Keeneland’s Grade I $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Oct. 13. Her 2-year-old stablemate, Dreaming of Liz, went the distance in 1:01 2/5 , rehearsing for Keeneland’s Grade I $500,000 Darley Alcibiades Stakes on Oct. 5.
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