Series Finals Wrap Up
Successful Hawthorne Meet
Hawthorne Race Course wraps up the first portion of its
2016 Standardbred dates on Saturday night. The Chicago
racetrack will then have a short Thoroughbred meet with the
pacers and trotters returning on Friday, May 6.
The Hawthorne 22-night harness meet—its first harness
session since 2008—exceeded expectations in terms of handle
and attendance. According to Hawthorne’s director of
racing operations Tom Kelley, the average handle for the
first 19 programs is $886,505. Four nights have topped $1
million, including last Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“The first press release I wrote noted the meet had exceeded
expectations by about 30 percent,” said Kelley. “The
whole meet has absolutely been terrific.”
Kelley noted that with some of the off-track betting sites
closing due to the bankruptcy
proceedings surrounding Balmoral
Park and Maywood Park,
the on-track attendance has been
impressive. Kelley said the ontrack
handle is averaging nearly
$50,000, much higher than last
winter’s meets at Maywood and
Balmoral. He noted the on-track handle on Saturday, Jan.
30, was nearly $90,000.
“With some of the OTBs closing, it has helped push people
to the track,” he said. “It looked like old times here last
Saturday night as the place was packed. The on-track pickup
has been huge and (the Carey family) is thrilled by that.”
Highlighting this weekend’s cards are a pair of series finals
for fillies and mares on Friday night. Eight will line up behind
the gate for the $14,600 Pretty Direct final (Race 7),
while 10 will go to post in the $19,000 Ohyouprettything
final (Race
.
Whiskersonkittens, who swept both Pretty Direct preliminaries,
is the 2-1 morning-line choice for the final. The 3-
year-old daughter of Party At Artsplace will start from post 7
after respectively notching 1:55.4 and 1:54 victories.
The 9-5 morning-line favorite in the Ohyouprettything final
is Mystical Nectar, who is three-for-three in 2016, including
a pair of scores in the opening round of the three-week series.
After putting her nose in front in the first leg of the
Ohyouprettything, Mystical Nectar romped to a 4 ½-length
score in leg two in a career-best 1:55.2. She will start from
post 9 with Simon Allard driving.
Not that it’s been a long career for Mystical Nectar, a 5-
year-old daughter of Charley Barley. After making five starts
in 2014 as a 2 year old, Mystical Nectar missed all of 2015.
She was purchased at last fall’s Blooded Horse Pre-Jug Sale
for $2,000 by Michigander Greg Gardner and later put back
into training with Tyler Nostadt.
“I’m not sure why she didn’t race last year. I didn’t talk to
anybody and just bought her at the sale,” explained Gardner,
who teaches math and economics at Montcalm Community
College in Sidney Township, Mich. “I toyed with the
idea of having a broodmare and I knew she had a great sister
and…she looked pretty good. Since it was nowhere near
the breeding season, I jogged her and then asked Tyler if he
wanted to baby her along. It was kind of a whim because
she seemed OK.”
Mystical Nectar is a full sister to Mystical Victress, p, 1:50,
$846,713, whose 49 career victories (in 98 starts) include a
trio of Illinois Super Night scores. Mystical Nectar also has
“With some of the
OTBs closing, it
has helped push
people to the
track.”
–Tom Kelley
