Hogy winds up in good spot
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – So far, everything has worked perfectly for owner William Stiritz and his private trainer, Scott Becker. They entered both Shogood and Hogy in a high-end turf-sprint allowance race last Sunday at Arlington, scratched Hogy, and got Shogood home for the first turf win of his career.
Hogy was re-entered in a high-end Polytrack sprint allowance on Friday’s card, and now Hogy, like Shogood, is in a very good spot.
What’s not good about the featured third race? The money. This will be the second race day affected by the overnight purse cut Arlington was forced to make a couple of weeks ago, and this strong field – stakes class, really – competes for a paltry $28,500.
The race brims with Arlington Polytrack lovers, Hogy among them. Hogy has won 5 of 10 starts on Arlington’s all-weather surface, including the 2013 Hanshin Cup. Hogy is 7 now, but he’s still pretty good if kept to one-turn races on turf or all-weather. In his most recent start, his 2016 debut, he finished fourth, beaten less than a length, in the $63,000 Mighty Beau, a turf-sprint stakes at Churchill Downs. When last seen on Arlington’s main track, he was third in the 2015 Hanshin, one race after a sharp seven-furlong allowance win over the track.
In that victory, Hogy ran right past Good Bye Greg, one of his rivals Friday and another Arlington Polytrack enthusiast. His loss to Hogy was one of just two defeats from five starts over the surface, but Good Bye Greg benefited from a speed-biased surface when he won a comeback start here May 30, and his open-lengths wins on the surface have come against opposition inferior to what he faces Friday.
In addition to Hogy, Good Bye Greg must deal with the rail-drawn Recount, who in his most recent start June 11 won the Addison Cammack for Illinois-bred sprinters over this six-furlong distance, running his Arlington Polytrack record to 6-5-0-0. Recount has speed but won’t want to get into a protracted duel with Good Bye Greg, and jockey Carlos Montalvo must work out a trip.
At the top of the stretch, Sweet Luca looked like he would drive past Recount and win the Cammack, but he was turned away and faded back to third, and he might have lost a step at age 7.