Hawthorne Gold Cup field coming together

The new, post-Breeders Cup-situated Hawthorne Gold Cup should have at least a decent field when it’s run Nov. 30, though perhaps not one quite befitting of a Grade 2 race with a $350,000 purse. A lack of high-class depth, however, was not hard to anticipate with the race going head-to-head against the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.

Weights for the Gold Cup, which is a handicap, weren’t to be released until Saturday night with entries due Wednesday, so the field still is taking shape, but the 1 1/4-mile Gold Cup is likely to be headed by a pair of East Coast shippers, Last Gunfighter and Alpha. Last Gunfighter, trained by Chad Brown, is a three-time stakes winner in 2013, and most recently finished a fine fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Alpha could only finish eighth in the BC Classic and has won only once in 2013, but that victory came in the Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga. His participation in the Hawthorne Gold Cup won’t be entirely firmed up, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said in a text message, until a workout this weekend.

Another confirmed shipper for the Gold Cup is Suns Out Guns Out, most recently fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon. Blueskiesnrainbows, who was being considered for the Gold Cup, is now unlikely to come to Hawthorne, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.

Hawthorne racing officials expect locally based Hattash and Mister Marti Gras to race, and trainer Greg Geier said he plans to run Fordubai and, perhaps, Street Spice in the Gold Cup.

Taylor Rice cool under fire

Jockey agent Ben Allen lost one of the top apprentice riders in the country when Emmanuel Esquivel moved his tack from Chicago to New York not long after the Hawthorne meet began this fall, but it did not take Allen long to come up with another promising bug rider.

Allen took the book of 25-year-old Taylor Rice not long after Esquivel departed, and Rice has caught on decently with local horsemen while showing off riding skills that are polished considering her lack of experience. Rice switches her crop from hand to hand smoothly in the heat of battle, and is a patient rider comfortable racing from off the pace and coming up the rail.

“She kind of reminds me of Manny when I see her coming from behind all the time,” said Allen.

Rice got a college degree before turning to a riding career, but she has a strong racing pedigree: Her father, Wayne Rice, is a trainer, as are her brothers, Kevin and Adam, and aunt, the well-known New York-based trainer Linda Rice. Taylor Rice debuted this past summer at Presque Isle Downs, where she won nine races, and had a handful of starts this fall at Belmont before wisely moving to a venue where she could ride more regularly.

Allen said Rice, who still gets a seven-pound weight break and will have her apprentice allowance until at least September, plans to ride at the Hawthorne meet through Christmas.

Work All week may travel

Trainer Roger Brueggemann said there were “no plans whatsoever” for Work All Week’s next start after the leading Illinois-bred sprinter won for the seventh time in eight races this year when capturing the Lightning Jet Handicap last weekend at Hawthorne.

Bred and owned by Midwest Thoroughbreds, Work All Week is a nose away from a perfect 8-for-8 campaign in 2013, and his seven wins this season have come by more than 32 lengths combined. There are no races for Work All Week left this year in Illinois, but Brueggemann plans to send a string to Oaklawn Park this winter, and he said Work All Week could be among the horses he stables there.

There’s little point in The Pizza Man, another Midwest homebred trained by Brueggemann, going to Oaklawn, since he is strictly a turf horse. Winner of the Robert Carey Memorial in his most recent start, The Pizza Man will be given a winter break and pointed to turf races in 2014, Brueggemann said.

Track turns fast

How fast was the Hawthorne main track on Nov. 14? Fast enough that Rightous Party tied the Hawthorne track record for 5 1/2 furlongs – clocking 1:02.51 – while winning a mere $20,000 maiden-claiming race, albeit by 7 3/4 lengths. Fast enough that the quickest 5 1/2-furlong time at Hawthorne since 1976 produced a Beyer Speed Figure of just 72. Rightous Party was not claimed out of her win for owner-trainer Louie Roussel.