HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – After winning the Grade 3, $500,000 Razorback Handicap on Monday at Oaklawn, Hawaakom was headed back to his Fair Grounds base on Tuesday morning. But there could be a much bigger trip on the immediate horizon. Trainer Wes Hawley said that if Hawaakom was extended an invitation to the $6 million Dubai World Cup, he would seriously consider running him. “It’s a mile and a quarter and my horse would definitely run that,” said Hawley, who owns Hawaakom with Steven Smoot. "That’s a once-in-a-lifetime thrill, unless you’ve got those horses all the time.” Hawaakom equaled his best Beyer Speed Figure, a 101, for his 3 ¼-length victory in the Razorback. He closed from well back, coming through on the rail under Corey Lanerie. “Everything went very smooth yesterday,” Hawley said on Tuesday. “The race itself was unbelievable, the way he came up the fence. He loves the fence. He loves the rail. He’s done everything I’ve ever asked him to do. Yesterday, I was blessed. The horse got through. Corey Lanerie rode a great race. It worked out great.” Hawley and Smoot claimed Hawaakom for $15,000 in November 2014 at Churchill Downs. The men have partnered on horses since meeting at a bar across the street from Hawthorne where Hawley ducked in to watch a Chicago Bulls game. That was back in 1996. It was a joint decision between Hawley and Smoot to claim Hawaakom, who on Monday earned $300,000. “We got outshook two times at Churchill on some other horses,” Hawley said. “He called me up and said, ‘What do you think?’ and I said, ‘He’s probably worth the money.’” Hawley said a race at Evangeline Downs in June 2015 convinced him there was something more to Hawaakom. “That day he won by eight lengths in an a-other-than at Evangeline, I really thought in the back of my mind, ‘This horse is going to be a good horse,'’’ said Hawley. Hawaakom gave Hawley his first graded stakes in the Razorback. It was also the first graded win for Hawaakom, who has won three stakes and is nearing $1 million in earnings with a bankroll of $925,405. Hawley said another path Hawaakom could go down this spring is the Oaklawn series, which continues with the $300,000 Essex Handicap on March 17 and the Grade 2, $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 14. “We’ll just wait and see, but more than likely the Oaklawn Handicap will be his next start,” Hawley said. “If I run back in the Essex, it may take too much out of him to run back in the Oaklawn. I know I can train him up to a race. That’s what we’ll probably do, unless we get an invitation for the World Cup.” Hawley is the trainer and owner of another handicap horse in Thirstforlife, who ran second in the Grade 3 Mineshaft on Saturday at Fair Grounds. He said Thirstforlife is under consideration for the Essex at Oaklawn. “We’ll look at the New Orleans Handicap or the Essex,” Hawley said. “I haven’t made up my mind yet. I don’t know if I can beat that horse, The Player. I don’t have that kind of speed to go with him.” The Player wired the field in the Mineshaft.