Ever Rider can handle distance of Hawthorne Gold Cup

STICKNEY, Ill. – Between nine and 13 horses are expected to be entered Wednesday when the Grade 2, $250,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup is drawn. The Gold Cup, the lone graded stakes race at Hawthorne’s fall-winter meet, will be contested Saturday.

Hawthorne racing officials as of Sunday listed the following horses as probable starters in the 1 1/4-mile dirt race: Abraham, Code West, Effinex, Ever Rider, Fordubai, Hattaash, Mister Marti Gras, Red Rifle, and Street Spice. Still considered possible entrants are Call Me George, Midnight Aria, Hope for Today, and Indy Awesome.

Ever Rider, based at Parx Racing with trainer Marya Montoya, is an interesting horse. Bred in Argentina and campaigned there during 2011, 2012, and much of 2013, Ever Rider came to the United States for the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Marathon, in which he finished 10th. But Ever Rider has improved steadily this year and enters off a win in the $200,000 Temperence Hill at Belmont Park. If anything, the distance of the Gold Cup is on the short side for Ever Rider, a true 1 1/2-mile horse.

Mister Marti Gras is set to make his fourth Gold Cup start: fourth in the 2011 and 2012 editions, he finished second to Last Gunfighter in 2013.

Red Rifle, trained by Todd Pletcher, finished second last out in the Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland, while the New York-bred Effinex won the statebred-restricted Empire Classic in his most recent race. Code West was scratched from last Saturday’s Delta Mile, and Abraham exits a win at Indiana Grand in the Schaefer Memorial. Street Spice was third in the 2013 Gold Cup.