STICKNEY, Ill. – You could say trainer Terrel Gore has gotten hot during the winter-spring meet at Hawthorne, but that would be saying far too little. Gore has 15 horses in his string here. Nine have won, and two have won twice. Entering Wednesday’s card – on which the best horse in his stable, Phaniebdancing, was scheduled to compete – Gore’s record at the meet, which began Feb. 21, was 11-6-3 from 27 starters. In less than six weeks, Gore has rung up as many victories as he notched during 2012 and 2013 combined. He is Hawthorne’s second-leading trainer behind Mike Reavis, who had 12 wins going into the Wednesday card. Gore said he did not anticipate the remarkable run – but then, how could he? Gore, who started training in 1980, regularly won 30 or 40 races per season through the early 1990s, but his operation has since contracted, as have his win totals. Gore had a paucity of older horses in 2013, his stable populated almost entirely by 2- and 3-year-olds, and those horses have matured now. Many either still were maidens or had won only once race when this meet began, and they have found soft spots with short fields ripe for the taking. Gore said he did not think he trained especially hard during a particularly harsh Chicago winter, but he has wintered in Chicago all but two years since 1984 and has learned plenty about cold-weather training. “I didn’t think I was overly ready, but this year, even with all the cold weather, you were able to keep galloping most of the time if you wanted to,” Gore said. Hawthorne trackman Greg Cardenas “did a great job keeping this track in good shape. My rule here had been any time it was below 10 degrees, you stayed in the barn, but 10 degrees this winter was a good day.” Gore believes Phaniebdancing, a 3-year-old Congrats filly owned by the RNB Racing stable of Bob and Nancy Bartels, is a future stakes horse. The filly, who cost $175,000 at auction, was slow to come around last year at 2 but settled down and improved significantly last fall. Facing older horses in her 2014 debut March 14, she took a 3 1/2-length lead to the stretch call of a second-level, two-turn allowance race, but she gawked at the starting gate on the outside fence and lost her focus, losing by a neck. Gore was to try Phaniebdancing in blinkers Wednesday. The way his meet has gone, they’re sure to work. ◗ Hector Magana has returned to racetrack training after serving as the farm trainer in Florida for Midwest Thoroughbreds since 2009. Magana, who worked for Bobby Frankel before coming to Chicago, won 67 races in 2009 and 48 in 2007. Magana currently is training a small string of horses he owns with his wife, Cheryl. ◗ Fordubai, who won the Louisiana Handicap this winter and last weekend finished fourth in the New Orleans Handicap, has returned to Chicago with trainer Greg Geier’s string and will make his next start in the Hanshin Cup at Arlington in late May. Plans are uncertain for Geier’s other top stakes horse, Street Spice, who was third last fall in the Hawthorne Gold Cup. ◗ Friday’s featured eighth race, a second-level two-turn allowance with a $30,000 claiming option, drew a good field of eight, including the Chris Block-trained coupled entry of No Apologizes and Fun On the Bayou. Also in the field are the capable Illinois-bred 4-year-old Ultimo Trago, who makes his 2014 debut and might have a turf race at Arlington as a major early-season goal, and Bells Big Bernie, who last was seen setting the pace and tiring to seventh in the May 25 Arlington Classic.