Hawthorne: Hogy to shake off rust in Wednesday allowance

STICKNEY, Ill. – For the second year in a row, the graded-stakes-class older horse Hogy will kick off his campaign in a Hawthorne allowance race.

Hogy, who won the Hanshin Cup at Arlington Park, the Troy Stakes at Saratoga, and the Presque Isle Downs Mile last season, is one of six entrants in Hawthorne’s third race Wednesday, a six-furlong dirt race with multiple high-end allowance conditions and a $50,000 claiming option.

Hogy has been shipped to Chicago from his winter base at Oaklawn Park to run Wednesday. He was originally scheduled to make his 2014 debut in a Jan. 25 turf-sprint stakes at Sam Houston, trainer Scott Becker said, but bruised a heel while training at Oaklawn. The setback cost him about 10 days of training, and when a targeted allowance race at Oaklawn failed to fill, Becker and owner William Stiritz had to look north to find a place to get Hogy started.

“He’s been pretty much ready to run for a while now,” Becker said.

Hogy caught mud in his 2013 debut at Hawthorne and won by 1 1/2 lengths. He won his only start on a fast dirt track but wasn’t nearly as impressive in that race as he has been on both synthetic surfaces and turf.

“I don’t think it’s his best surface, but he’s never really been tested on it, so I don’t know for sure,” Becker said. “He seems like he accelerates more on turf or synthetic.”

Hogy’s top race is better than anything any of his five opponents Wednesday have produced, but expecting a top race seems imprudent. Becker and Stiritz have their eyes on the Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland next month and on a repeat attempt in the Hanshin Cup in May, and Wednesday’s start is just a means to that end.

River Bear, long one of the top Illinois-bred sprinters, was a sharp comeback winner at about this time last season and has won or placed in 10 of his 18 starts on the Hawthorne main track. Four Left Feet has worked sharply for his 2014 debut and was in sharp form here last fall and winter.

◗ Chief Barker, an Irish-bred 3-year-old colt who beat Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Chriselliam last year in England, has been privately purchased by Chicago-area owner Paul Hanifl and arrived in Chicago from former trainer Richard Hannon’s base in England this past weekend. Trained now by Larry Rivelli, Chief Barker soon will be shipped to Keeneland and is being pointed to the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes.