One down, one to go for McLaughlin

STICKNEY, Ill. – No word on whether Redding Colliery has visited the Art Institute of Chicago or Millennium Park, or taken in a meaningless late-season Cubs or White Sox game. The point is, while Redding Colliery remains in Chicago, his work here was done early Saturday evening, when he won the Hawthorne Gold Cup. It is just a matter of whiling away the days, waiting for stablemate Yankee Fourtune to start Saturday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Hawthorne Derby.

New York-based trainer Kiaran McLaughlin made the somewhat unusual move of shipping two horses to Hawthorne for races one week apart. Both Yankee Fourtune and Redding Colliery arrived here last week under the care of Prakash Surendran, a stable foreman, and exercise rider Roberto Ruiz, and so far, so good for the New Yorkers. Redding Colliery scored a front-running victory as the favorite in the $250,000 Gold Cup on Saturday, setting a blistering pace while holding on gamely through Hawthorne’s long stretch run. McLaughlin said earlier this week that there were not yet any set plans for Redding Colliery’s next start, but do not expect to see the horse in a race like the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Yankee Fourtune, like Redding Colliery, will try to get things done on the front end. After making one poor start last year at age 2, Yankee Fourtune has won all three of his races in 2010 after being moved to turf. His most recent race came Sept. 6 at Saratoga, where Yankee Fourtune sped to a 7 1/2-length win in an entry-level grass allowance race.

Yankee Fourtune landed the outside stall when the 1 1/8-mile Hawthorne Derby was drawn Wednesday. The remainder of the field, from the rail out, is Mister Marti Gras, Asphalt, Call Shot, Backtrack, Dean’s Kitten, Cherokee Lord, and Turf Melody.

Karlsson sidelined with health problems

Inez Karlsson, among the leading riders at Hawthorne the last few years, will be out of action indefinitely as she determines how to address a medical problem.

Karlsson was forced to take off mounts twice late in the Arlington meet, and hasn’t ridden a race since Sept. 18 because of a recurrence of endometriosis, a painful condition that first afflicted Karlsson in 2007. The cause of endometriosis is unknown, but it is hormonally related and produces irregular cell growth around female reproductive organs that can cause intense pain in the lower abdomen and back. It was just such pain that Karlsson began experiencing again late this summer.

“After the Million, it went straight downhill. My body basically stopped working,” Karlsson said. “I was in pain every day. I came to the point where I felt like I can’t keep doing this to my body.”

Karlsson, 27, could undergo surgery that would alleviate the condition, but that would deprive her of a chance to bear children, something she says she wants to do. Karlsson has difficult decisions to make, but said that she plans to return to riding as soon as she can.

“I don’t know how long a time this is going to take,” Karlsson said. “I’m going to be out till I know what my situation is going to be like.”

Karlsson moved from her native Sweden to Canada, where she began working in harness racing before switching to Thoroughbreds. A former amateur boxer, she began race-riding at Arlington in 2007, and was leading rider at Hawthorne during the fall-winter meet in 2008-2009.