Hinsdale, IL — When you have a horse going to the starting gate bursting with confidence along with a driver overflowing with poise and conviction often good things are going to happen and they usually do.

That was the case a week ago when last year’s ICF freshman male pacing champion Gorgeous Big Guy and driver Cordarius Stewart teamed up to provide the gifted Erv Miller trainee his eighth consecutive win and remain unbeaten against fellow state-bred pacers in his career.

Cordarius Stewart is confidently off to a strong start at Hawthorne’s Du Quoin meet. Terry Young photo.

Will the more than capable combination of Gorgeous Big Guy and the rising star from Mississippi extend their laurels? We won’t have to wait long to find out. The second of 14 races on Thursday’s (June 13) Hawthorne at Du Quoin card will deliver the answer when a field of eight Illinois bred colts and geldings go to the starting gate.

Gorgeous Big Guy, who had the three-slot a week ago, did one better this time around with the two. His dangerous stablemate Fox Valley Durham (Wyatt Avenatti) moves inside of him with the rail.

Meanwhile, the talented Guitar Man, from the stable of Rob Rittof, fresh off a game victory last week in the $10,266 Downstate Classic at the Decatur Fair, and the winner of six of 11 starts as a juvenile, joins this fray. A 1:51.3 winner as a 2-year-old, the draw wasn’t kind to the Somestarsomewhere prodigy. He landed the seven post.

Interestingly, in an earlier decade of racing, Gorgeous Big Guy and Guitar Man would have been an entry if there was wagering, which there isn’t Thursday. Both horses are owned by Doug Overhiser and Mark Winship.

If you were fortunate to hear the call of Curt Becker when Gorgeous Big Guy won another, you didn’t need to view how the race unfolded. Our talented Illinois announcer called it perfectly.

The winner was inside, some half-dozen lengths behind at the half that went in a modest :57.3 with Fox Valley Durham leading the way when Curt said: “Cordarius is just sitting chilly with Gorgeous Big Guy. He hasn’t moved a muscle.”

Meanwhile Gorgeous Big Guy was moving plenty of his muscles, gobbling up ground and in the stretch zipped past while hand driven to the wire. It was the same winning strategy that Stewart used earlier on that card with the Illinois-bred trotter Jewels For Champ, another Miller trainee.

Cordarius Stewart was unfazed by s slow 1:01.4 half by the pacesetter. Instead, he came first over with the $32,000 yearling and powered past, victorious by more than three lengths with a :28.3 last panel.

Thursday, Jewels For Champ, already a winner in 1:55.4 two starts ago in just the Lou’s Legacy gelding’s fourth career outing, guns for his third in a row in race four but he will have to do it leaving from the outside six post.

I think he’s good for another and list him at 6-5 in my projected non-wagering line.

Last year’s Fox Valley Flan victor Stand By Your Man (Mike Brink) and 2023 ICF 2-year-old filly trot champ Whiskey Lou (Casey Leonard) drew into different divisions of the state-bred trotting events.

Stand By Your Man landed in the first (race seven) split. It’s her first outing since late October.

Whiskey Lou dropped into the tenth race second division for trainer Curt Grummel. She’ll take on the one-two finishers in last week’s Downstate Classic at Decatur, Ally Baba (Avenatti) and Illini Diva (Stewart).

First post at Du Quoin is 1 p.m.