Fast Jack gets favorable weight in Work All Week

Fast Jack returned from a 10-month layoff April 16 to finish a distant, fading third in a FanDuel Racing allowance where he was the 11-10 favorite. Perfect. Fast Jack surely got something out of comeback race he needed and ran poorly enough to be assigned a favorable weight in the $75,000 Work All Week Handicap on Sunday at Hawthorne.

Fast Jack carries 119 pounds, just one more than he did when he won the 2023 Work All Week, a six-furlong dirt race for older Illinois-breds. A year ago, Fast Jack won by a neck while making his first start following a six-month layoff. This time around, with a race already behind him, Fast Jack has worked three times at FanDuel since his April race for trainer Scott Becker, who has an excellent record with horses making their second start following an extended break.

Becker also runs the starting highweight and 7-5 morning-line favorite, W W Hotshot. Becker and co-owner Scott Ritter claimed W W Hotshot for $40,000 last August. This is the second time the gelding has run for these connections.

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W W Hotshot made his first 11 starts for Becker before being claimed for $15,000 and blossoming during 2023. W W Hotshot returned from a shorter layoff than Fast Jack and smoked FanDuel allowance foes May 4, earning a career-best 93 Beyer.

Don’t let that recent start lead you astray. W W Hotshot under 124 pounds concedes five pounds to his stablemate Fast Jack, who fundamentally is the better horse. Twice the two have met, and twice Fast Jack has beaten W W Hotshot by several lengths, a pattern that should prevail Sunday at Hawthorne.

All seven entrants probably are going to face wet conditions, with a 90 percent chance of rain forecast throughout Sunday. Fast Jack has only started on fast tracks but sports a whopping 480 Tomlinson wet-track rating.

The FanDuel-based Becker has a third runner, Megan’s Honor, but Richiesonaroll is the other horse with credentials to win the Work All Week. Richiesonaroll has been racing against open allowance and stakes competition and crushed a field of allowance horses the last time he faced Illinois-breds. He does, however, run back on short rest, his most recent race having come May 11, and Richiesonaroll – weighted at a feathery 116 – might have peaked earlier this spring.

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