Becker sends three in Blackhawk, four in Pershing
STICKNEY, Ill. – Owner Bill Stiritz and trainer Scott Becker have too many Illinois-breds for too few Illinois-bred stakes races.
Stiritz and Becker have three of the six horses entered in the $50,000 Blackhawk and four of the 12 in the $50,000 Pershing, a pair of six-furlong handicaps on dirt restricted to Illinois-breds or horses who have started in Illinois this year. The Blackhawk (race 3) has no sex restriction, while the Pershing (race 6) is for fillies and mares.
The Becker-trained trio in the Blackhawk consists of Luv Bandit, Purely Given, and Creative Art, but half the field might not be enough to win since trainer Jim DiVito has two entrants of his own, and both look like contenders. The 3-year-old Recount gets class relief Saturday after racing in the Perryville Stakes at Keeneland and the Gallant Bob Stakes at Parx Racing. He broke poorly in both of those races and should be prominent throughout the Blackhawk with a sharper start. The DiVito-trained Helooksthepart easily captured a high-end allowance race here Nov. 16 and has won 6 of 9 starts locally.
Luv Bandit is the most accomplished of the Becker trio, but six furlongs is a shorter distance than his best, and he’ll have trouble getting up even if he fires.
The story is similar in the Pershing, in which the Becker quartet – Doc Galore, Our Domain, Wildwood Kantharos, and Rosie My Rosie – might be more formidable in quantity than quality. The Hawthorne-loving Rosie My Rosie has been working encouragingly at Fairmount Park for her first start since August but is 0 for 2 at six furlongs and always has preferred route racing. Wildwood Kantharos looks like the best of the Becker four, and the stable’s top jockey, Chris Emigh, winds up here.
But the pick to win the Pershing is Puntsville, a lightly raced 3-year-old filly whose Polytrack and turf form transferred nicely this fall to Hawthorne dirt, over which she has won back-to-back allowance races. Also worthy of consideration at long odds is Supercede, who was scratched out of a lesser race in favor of this spot and is unexposed in dirt sprints.