Hawthorne Stable Notes for Sunday, November 1, 2009

A beautiful day!!!!   We’re still off the turf L 

At least next week looks promising!

Yesterday was a great day for our Illinois-bred runners as we saw some top performances on the card.  Jockey Brandon Meier captured his first lifetime stakes victory aboard Ripe Tomato to kick off the stakes and jockey Ariel Smith grabbed his first Hawthorne stakes score with a prefect ride aboard That’s Whatshesaid.

Yesterday marked the end to the career of Fort Prado and while the classy 8 year-old horse did not have his best race, it was nice to be able to pay tribute to the old warrior and we wish him the best of luck in his next career as a top stallion.

The track played very evenly for the card as the best horse, or the horse with the best trip, won the races on yesterday’s card.

Changes

Main Track – Fast

Turf – Off

Race 1

Scratch #7 – Button Box Kid

Race 2

Scratch #4 – Officer Lex

Race 3 – Off Turf – 1 1/8 miles main track

Scratch #2 – Sealaunch

Scratch #5 – Arching

Scratch #7 – Blue Smoke Bess

Race 7

Scratch #5 – Euromillion

Race 8

Scratch #11 – Queenlasefa

Scratch #13 – Carolsbeentaukin

Scratch #14 – Golden Karlie

Race 9

Scratch #12 – Madam Talc

Scratch #4 – Cart Lite

Best Bets

Race 4 - #6 – Sundae Slew – The connections chose to run in this race over the stakes event yesterday and I believe that was a good choice.  He didn’t run poorly in the slop and I expect him to rate close and contend throughout today.

Race 8 - #7 – Crafty Melissa – Despite the large field, you can’t overlook this five-year-old mare.  She has won all six of her races at Hawthorne and runs for a top barn.  Expect a big effort once again.