Becker, Stiritz pair no lock in feature race

STICKNEY, Illinois – The three days of racing last week at Hawthorne were quiet for Scott Becker, private trainer for William Stiritz, owner of Fairmount Park and a leading breeder and owner in Illinois. How could they not have been? The week before, Becker sent out nothing but live horses, going 6-0-2 from nine starters. The three horses that didn’t win started in races Becker and Stiritz won with another horse.

“It was a big week – a good run,” Becker said.

Becker and Stiritz have two more entrants – Gita’s Lad and Smoke ‘n’ Gloat – in the featured fifth race Thursday as Hawthorne’s very brief spring meeting hits its final three-day week.

Becker and Stiritz, given the extremely shaky foundation of the Illinois racing and breeding industry, recently have put down some roots in Florida, and Becker has stalls at Gulfstream Park. He made another change to his operation this winter, keeping horses at Hawthorne throughout the dark period in January and February rather than collecting everything at his Fairmount Park base.

Becker said harsh late-winter conditions backed up his Hawthorne string, accounting for his quiet start to the meet, but once the weather broke, he clearly was able to get plenty of work into these horses.

That said, neither Gita’s Lad nor Smoke ‘n’ Gloat is an obvious fit in Thursday’s fifth race, which has a second-level allowance condition as its base with a host of ancillary qualifications helping to fill the field. The problem with the Becker-Stiritz pair is that both are sprinters, and this is a two-turn race.

Smoke ‘n’ Gloat is the more accomplished of this pair, but he ran below his best form in a mid-March comeback race, where Gita’s Lad scored a sharp Hawthorne sprint win two weeks ago.

The pick to win, in fact, comes from the barn of Becker’s friend and rival in Chicago and at Fairmount, trainer Steve Manley. Manley, who is gearing up for Arlington more than concentrating on Hawthorne this spring, won a race here last week and appears to have Runningfromthefeds primed off workouts for a winning performance.

DRF BETS (all stories) 4-12-19