Hogy getting long in tooth but still fast on feet

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Even as the purse strings tightened on the Chicago racing circuit and the pace of claiming slowed, horsemen who wanted to drop, say, a struggling stakes horse into a high-end claiming race still had to fear losing an animal they wished to keep to one owner – William Stiritz. Stiritz, who for years has run one of the more successful racing operations in the Midwest, never was shy about dropping a claim on the right horse for $50,000 or even higher.

There is, however, no danger of that happening with Hogy in the featured seventh race Sunday at Arlington, and that’s because it’s Stiritz himself risking a horse who still looks like he might be stakes caliber for a high-end claiming tag. Hogy is one of eight entrants in a five-furlong turf dash with a couple of high allowance conditions and a $50,000 claiming option.

Hogy runs for the $50,000, which is $30,000 less than what Stiritz claimed him for back in November 2012. That was money well spent. Most of Hogy’s career earnings of nearly $700,000 were accumulated after he joined the Stiritz stable, and his ability to produce top form in races as diverse as turf sprints and synthetic-surface miles has lessened the burden of finding suitable spots for the gelding, who is 7 now.

Hogy won easily a little more than a year ago the last time he ran for a tag, $62,500 in that case, and he is the Sunday feature’s most likely winner if he can run back to his performance June 4 at Churchill, where he finished fourth, beaten less than a length, in the $63,000 Mighty Beau, also a turf sprint. The race Sunday looks top-heavy with speed, and Hogy should have a fair chance to get up at a distance a little short of his best if most of the pace shows.

Hogy’s stablemate Shogood will be a pace factor, but he has never raced on turf and in five starts this year has not shown a lot of progress from 2-year-old form that won him the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity.

Mongol Bull would have had a great chance to rally and win this race in his form from a year ago, but he has looked nothing like that horse in recent races. Rivzinthehouse has won two in a row but for only a $30,000 claiming price and will be part of the pace. El Seventyseven is yet another aging horse who appears to have lost a step during the last year.