Hawthorne meet opens with encouraging numbers

STICKNEY, Ill. – For one day at least, it feels like the fall-winter Hawthorne meets of yore, when horsemen stuffed the entry box day after day. Back in 1991, Hawthorne averaged 10 starters per race during its fall-winter meet, and even through 2006, at least nine horses per race started here.

By last season, that number had tumbled to 7.84, mirroring national and regional trends, but 97 horses were entered Tuesday for Friday’s nine-race card, and even if this is a short blast from the past, it is good to see healthy-sized fields again after a tough Arlington summer.

Friday is the first of 47 programs this fall and winter at Hawthorne, and though entries came in strong again for Saturday, it’s unreasonable to expect the trend to continue all that long. Hawthorne is expecting 1,200 horses to be stabled on the backstretch, and that number will steadily diminish beginning next month as horses leave for winter quarters. Purses are expected to average about $125,000 per day, according to Hawthorne president Tim Carey, and the entire stakes schedule has been scrapped in order to keep overnight purses at that level.

“We’re trying to do as much as we can for Illinois horsemen,” Carey said. “That’s our lifeblood.”

Hawthorne has tried to carefully manage its purse account, which, at its lowest point, was overpaid by about $600,000. The overpayment is down to $125,000 at the start of this meet, and Hawthorne absolutely wants to avoid seeing the deficit grow at this meeting.

Hawthorne has run between 48 and 68 grass races during the fall meet the last five years, and if warm early-fall weather holds, an extended run of turf racing could help hold field size at a more attractive level. Racing weeks are four days, Thursdays through Sundays until Nov. 19, at which point three-day weeks, sans Sundays, commence.

The jockey colony seems fluid at the start of the season, and it remains to be seen whose business kicks in. Scott Becker, who won 30 races at the meet last year, might have an inside track on leading trainer, but bettors should keep a close eye on Chris Dorris, whose 17 winners a year ago produced a $3.68 return on investment. Other top 10 trainers whose runners yielded a flat-bet win profit last season are Dee Poulos, Percy Scherbenske, Clay Brinson, and Jim DiVito.