Stickney, IL — The 2024 Hawthorne harness racing meeting opens this weekend with leg three of its Night of Champions stake series. First post on both Saturday (Oct. 19) and Sunday (Oct. 20) is 7:10 p.m.
Eight divisions for 3-year-old Illinois Conceived and Foaled (ICF) pacers and trotters head up Saturday’s 15-race program while nine divisions for state-bred 2-year-olds are the feature races on Sunday’s card.
Saturday’s first grouping of the Robert F. Carey Jr. Memorial (race four) will see the streaking Gorgeous Big Guy put his remarkable 16-race winning streak on the line. Former Illinois circuit driver Marcus Miller is back in his home state to guide the homebred Ashlee’s Big Guy gelding away from post two in the eight-horse field. Owned by Doug Overhiser and Mark Winship, the Erv Miller trainee finished his first season with seven consecutive victories for a sweep of the major Illinois-bred stakes, including the Incredible Finale championship on Night of Champions, banking over $155,000 for the year.
It’s been more of the same for Gorgeous Big guy in his sophomore campaign. He’s nine-for-nine with another $74,215 added to his bankroll with a lifetime mark of 1:49.3, taken in his Cardinal division triumph back in late June. He also won a split of the Dudley Hanover stake at Du Quoin and the $55,000 Illinois Department of Agriculture championship at Springfield. The last time the youngster lost a race with a purse was more than a year ago, in a Michigan stakes event, at Hart, Mich. He’s been perfect since acquired by the Erv Miller stable.
While Gorgeous Big Guy is in a sweet spot with the two-slot Saturday, one of his main rivals, Doctor Cruise (Kyle Husted), is inside of him with the rail and is very quick from the gate. The Mike Brink stable’s Fox Valley Julian (Casey Leonard) drew post seven but is nevertheless another threat to end Gorgeous Big Guy’s long winning streak. While Fox Valley Julian is winless in 10 starts this year, the youngster has been third or better seven times and was nine-for-nine hitting the board as a freshman.
Fox Valley Kodiak (Kyle Husted), who nosed out the highly regarded Guitar Man (Travis Seekman) last week, will meet his rival again in the Carey’s second division (race nine). New to the NOC series is Negotiator (Marcus Miller), another Erv Miller potential threat despite drawing the outside eight post. The Sometimesomewhere gelding was unraced as a 2-year-old and this year has been successful in six of his nine outings with a 1:50.4 win a week ago. Negotiator’s dam is Fox Valley Jazzy, whose younger sister Fox Valley Jasmine competes Sunday in a division of the Incredible Tillie series, a race Fox Valley Jazzy won in the 2017 Night of Champions finale.
The Plum Peachy, for 3-year-old pacing fillies, drew 23 entries and will go in a pair of fields with trailers.
The first split (race six) has 11 hopefuls with Fox Valley Sadie (Kyle Husted), from the barn of Amy Husted, likely to get the bulk of the players’ support after two consecutive strong victories, pushing her purse money earnings to over $53,000 in 2024.
The second Plum Peachy division landed an even dozen fillies in race eight. The Jamaica Patton-trained Hypeyourbestieup (Travis Seekman), Dandy’s Ms Swifty (Casey Leonard) and Fox Valley Tessa (Wyatt Avenatti) are the likely betting favorites.