Hawley-owned stars Steel Cut, Hawaakom launch season in stakes

It was a solid year in 2016 for veteran trainer Wes Hawley, but it was a great year for owner Wes Hawley.

Hawley, a 53-year-old Oklahoma native, owns outright the 6-year-old mare Steel Cut, who earned $226,550 last year. He owns three-quarters of Hawaakom, who banked $310,953 during 2016 while campaigning for Hawley and his partner Stephan Smoot. That’s a half-million right there, less the other sundry and considerable purses Hawley picked up owning horses himself or in partnership, though less, of course, expenses and reinvestment.

“I made a lot of money last year, but I work hard, and I spent over $100,000 on horses, too,” said Hawley. “I made my money with racehorses, and I put it back into the game.”

Hawaakom and Steel Cut both are entered to make their first start of 2017 on Saturday at Fair Grounds. Steel Cut runs in the Marie Krantz Stakes, while Hawaakom is part of the field in the Louisiana Stakes.

Hawley claimed Hawaakom, a 7-year-old son of Jazil, for a mere $15,000 in October 2014, and the gelding has been on an upward cycle pretty much ever since. Hawaakom badly paddles his left front leg and has a generally awkward action, but he has raced 22 times in the last two years while showing steady improvement. He won the $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Cup last summer and then was pace-disadvantaged in his final four starts of 2016, the last of which produced a solid fifth-place finish in Gun Runner’s Grade 1 Clark Handicap win.

“He’s been unbelievable for me other than some issues with his feet,” Hawley said. “He’s always showed up for me, and I think he’s better now than he’s ever been.”

◗ Because their barn went into a quarantine due to the equine herpesvirus outbreak after entries for Saturday’s card were taken, horses on the program trained by Andrew McKeever and Thomas Morley will be scratched