Hawaakom looks for a second Governor's Cup

Hawaakom was a productive 6-year-old when he won the Grade 3, $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Cup in 2016. Two years later, he might not have lost even half a step.

Hawaakom is the 5-2 morning-line favorite to win the 2018 edition of the Governor’s Cup on Saturday at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack, and Resort, and even as a mid-season 8-year-old he does not appear to be coming into this start as flawed chalk.

“He’s pretty much as good as I’ve ever had him,” said Wes Hawley, who trains Hawaakom and owns him with Stephan Smoot. “He liked the track well enough there. He didn’t run in the race last year because he just wasn’t doing as good at the time. A lot of care is what’s helped him stay this good. He gets therapy all the time and I’ve never injected him, per se. If he gets depleted or a little knocked out I give him time. Whatever that horse needs, he gets.”

Hawaakom, a millionaire claimed in the autumn of 2014 by Hawley and Smoot for $15,000, comes off a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap, and Hawley believes with a better trip he could have finished second. Robby Albarado picks up the mount for Saturday’s race, which is contested at 1 1/16 miles on dirt.

Matrooh may be Hawaakom’s main opponent on Saturday. Matrooh beat Hawaakom by a head in the Foster and came back to finish eighth in the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker, a race in which he had little chance to win trying to rally from sixth into a glacial pace. If those two can’t muster a top performance the race flies wide open. Leofric on paper looks the stronger of two Brad Cox-trained runners but Cox’s second starter, Term of Art, is one of only a couple horses who might show early speed.

Cox set up for big day

In addition to starting High North in the West Virginia Derby and two runners in the Governor’s Cup, Cox has entrants in four other stakes races Saturday at Mountaineer, none as formidable as Golden Mischief in the $75,000 West Virginia Secretary of State Stakes, a six-furlong dirt race for fillies and mares.

Golden Mischief won the $100,000 Saylorville at Prairie Meadows last out by five lengths, and earlier this year earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure. Florent Geroux, who rides most of the Cox runners Saturday, has the mount and should get a great trip tracking a hot, contested pace. Puntsville, one of the entrants with speed, won’t be shipping from Chicago, trainer Michele Boyce said.

Cox also has Big Changes in the $75,000 West Virginia Speakers Cup over one mile and 70 yards on turf; Hachi in the $75,000 West Virginia President’s Cup, another one-mile 70-yard turf race, this one restricted to fillies and mares; and Sevier in the $75,000 Robert C. Byrd Memorial Stakes at six furlongs on dirt.

All these entrants have a reasonable chance.

Big Changes is the 8-5 morning-line favorite in the Speaker’s Cup after winning for a $50,000 claiming tag two starts ago at Churchill and landing the $50,000 John Henry Stakes last out at Evangeline Downs. The competition does run deeper Saturday than at Evangeline, with Special Ops, who won this race last year for trainer Mike Maker, rating a much stronger chance than his 4-1 morning-line price.

Hachi, a Chilean import who’d made her first North American starts in California with trainer Richard Mandella, nearly pulled a 15-1 upset making her first start for Cox on July 14 in the Indiana General Assembly Distaff at Indiana Grand. Hachi got away with a slow pace that night. Once again it’s Maker who has the chief challengers to the Cox horse. Gianna’s Dream, who drops in class from the Grade 3 Eatontown and the Grade 2 Nassau, looks slightly stronger than Maker’s other runner, Susie Bee, though she’s also good enough to contend.

Sevier is one of several plausible winners of the Byrd Memorial. Heartwood, Line Judge, and Balandeen also have form worthy of serious consideration, and contention runs deep enough that Sevier is favored on the line at a tepid 9-2.

The West Virginia Legislature Chairman’s Cup, a 4 ½ furlong dash, starts just before the far turn, but don’t assume that Mountaineer distance favors inside posts. Posts 3 through 7 have the highest win rate at the trip since 2010, but from a small sample outside posts have also steadily produced winners. Strong Like Bull has no Mountaineer form but has regularly raced this distance at Charles Town, his home track, and has seven wins from 13 such starts. Warleigh has trainer Kevin Patterson in his corner, and Patterson has gone a cool 7-3-1 from 12 starters this meet at Mountaineer.