Encourage moves on to stakes company in Hawthorne Derby

As a 2-year-old racing on dirt and Tapeta, the colt named Encourage struggled to make a mark. As a 3-year-old running in grass races, the results have been far more . . . encouraging.

On Aug. 12, back from an eight-month layoff and making his grass debut, Encourage showed a decent turn of foot past the quarter pole and a game disposition to the wire winning a 1 1/16-mile Ellis Park maiden race by a neck. Moving from Ellis’s conventional turf oval to 1 5/16 miles on the undulating, oblong Kentucky Downs course, Encourage on Sept. 5 made it 2 for 2 on turf with a solid first-level allowance victory over older rivals.

Now, it’s on to stakes competition, and Encourage fits as well as any of the nine entrants in the $100,000 Hawthorne Derby on Saturday. The rare Hawthorne stakes is contested over 1 1/8 miles and is carded as the seventh of eight races, post time 5:36 p.m. Central.

“He had some issues over the winter, so we gave him plenty of time. He came back as a big boy,” trainer Kenny McPeek said.

:: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now!

Bigger and much better. Encourage didn’t come close in any of his first three starts, two on dirt, the last on Turfway’s synthetic surface. By Air Force Blue out of the Galileo mare Cavanagh Park, Encourage debuted going two turns and does not lack stamina. Brian Hernandez Jr. gave Encourage a fine ride at Kentucky Downs, and though circumstance forced Hernandez to make his final move a little earlier than ideal, his mount held clear a sustained bid from 5-year-old Jarreau, the Mike Maker-trained race favorite, to win by a neck before galloping out well in front. Encourage got just two pounds from his much more seasoned rival, and Hernandez had to work just to pull Encourage up.

“He’s got a little base under him now,” McPeek said, foreseeing further progress rather than regression. “I expect this will be a good race for him, too.”

With Hernandez riding at Churchill Downs on Saturday, Chris Emigh has a call on Encourage, who could be favored from post 6.

American Mayhem also made his recent starts at Ellis and Kentucky Downs. He’s one class rung ahead of Encourage, having won a first-level Ellis allowance before finishing third in the Gun Runner Stakes, and he has shown at least as much raw ability as Encourage. But all three of American Mayhem’s turf starts came at one mile.

“The mile and an eighth is an unknown factor, no doubt,” trainer Jim DiVito said.

American Mayhem showed spark on dirt but, like Encourage, the switch to turf raised his game. He overcame a bad start to whip Ellis maidens, rallying sharply from 11th, and with a better break won the first-level allowance from just off the pace. American Mayhem finished third of 11 in the Gun Runner, despite becoming unbalanced through the course’s downhill section on the backstretch and never really regaining his rhythm.

“I don’t think he cared for that track; he didn’t have the same stride,” DiVito said.

Speaking Scout is listed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite but figures a somewhat longer price at post time. With 11 races already, he’s far more exposed than Encourage and American Mayhem, although Speaking Scout has been luckless in several of his defeats.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.