Becker, Stiritz look to stay red-hot at Hawthorne
STICKNEY, Ill. – The team of owner Bill Stiritz and his private trainer, Scott Becker, wins a lot of races in Illinois, but the early part of Hawthorne’s fall-winter meets has not been their forte – until this year.
During the first two weeks of the 2013 fall-winter meet, Becker sent out 21 horses, and only one of them won, and last year during the same period, the stable went just 2 for 18. But that 3-for-39 two-year win mark out of the blocks has given way to an exemplary start at the 2015 fall-winter meet here. Becker and Stiritz through Sunday had connected with 7 of 18 runners at Hawthorne.
“We didn’t do anything different this year,” said Becker, who spends most of his time with the Stiritz string at Fairmount Park, which Stiritz owns. “It just worked out this way, really. The right horses are getting good at the right time, and I think they’re all pretty well placed.”
On the Wednesday card at Hawthorne, Becker has three chances to win two races, with 7-5 morning-line favorite A Gala Day entered in race 6 and two horses, Valiant City and Luv Bandit, in the featured race 7, a dirt route that’s at base a third-level allowance but has various other eligibility conditions appended to help the race fill.
There are seven horses in the field for race 7, with Mister Marti Gras the morning-line favorite and easily the most accomplished horse in the race. If Mister Marti Gras can muster the form that got him home second behind Red Rifle in the 2014 Hawthorne Gold Cup, he wins, but that race is a speck in the rearview mirror at this point.
Luv Bandit, purchased privately by Stiritz last December, hasn’t raced since May but is a Hawthorne two-turn dirt specialist who ran well fresh a year ago.
“I think he’s ready; he trains awfully hard,” said Becker.
But the pick to win is the other Becker-Stiritz horse, Valiant City, who gets the stable’s primary Chicago rider, Chris Emigh. Valiant City is on exactly the same pattern that produced a win under similar circumstances last Oct. 14, and when last seen Aug. 23 at Arlington, he won a two-turn Polytrack race in which Mister Marti Gras finished third. Bettors will notice that too, however, and expect Valiant City to go to post well below his 9-2 morning line.
Shogood to Street Sense
Meanwhile, the Becker-Stiritz 2-year-old Shogood, who won the Arlington-Washington Futurity last out, has posted two recent breezes at Fairmount and will start Nov. 1 at Churchill in the Street Sense Stakes, a one-turn mile. If he runs well there, it’s on to the Delta Jackpot for the Illinois-bred Shogood, whom Stiritz bought after a good debut second June 19.