Hawkish by a head in Cliff Hanger Stakes

At the top of the stretch of the $100,000 Cliff Hanger Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday, 3-5 favorite Hawkish had his work cut out for him. He was four or five lengths off the pace and his principal challenger Projected had gotten the jump on him.

But Hawkish leveled off nicely in the stretch under jockey Trevor McCarthy, split the leaders in midstretch, then out-battled Projected to the wire to score by a head. For Hawkish, the win was his fourth from seven career starts. For Projected, the second-place finish was his 12th from 27 races to go along with six wins.

The Cliff Hanger was Hawkish's second start following an eight-month layoff. He had finished a close second in his comeback race for trainer Jimmy Toner in the Grade 3 Appleton at Gulfstream Park on March 29.

"I didn’t expect him to be that far back early on, truthfully," Toner said of the Cliff Hanger. "I thought he ran a great race because he had trouble, tipped out, split horses, and showed his quality."

Hawkish is a gelded 4-year-old son of Artie Schiller who races for Robert LaPenta, Sol Kumin and partners. The Cliff Hanger was his third start and first win since he an impressive victory last June in the Grade 2 Penn Mile.

Timed in 1:35.11 over a firm Monmouth course, Hawkish paid $3.40 to win in the Cliff Hanger.

Mo Maverick set a reasonable pace of 23.55 and 47.77 seconds on a short lead over 22-1 shot Dover Cliffs with Projected stalking the pace a few lengths back in fourth. It was several lengths farther back to Hawkish.

Projected began to advance towards the leaders on the far turn and went outside them for the stretch run. At the quarter pole, Hawkish still had about five lengths to make up though six furlongs in 1:11.03 and it appeared he had a lot to do in a short period of time.

In the stretch, Hawkish split the leaders with Projected outside horses. The pair hooked up for the final sixteenth and at the wire a determined Hawkish held off Projected by a small margin.

The final quarter-mile went in 24.08 with Hawkish closing quite a bit of ground during those 440 yards.

"He broke a little slow today but I was happy where he was down the backside and on the far turn," McCarthy said. "When the hole opened, he went right through."

Mo Maverick held third by a half-length over Sand Dancer, who had raced outside the winner on the backstretch and far turn.