Home team has hands full in Stickney, Cicero
STICKNEY, Ill. – In horse-starved Chicago, the innovations designed to attract entries keep on coming. The latest? Turning Illinois-bred races into non-Illinois-bred races.
The $50,000 Stickney and Cicero handicaps – the Stickney for fillies and mares and the Cicero for 3-year-olds and up – look at first glance like Illinois-bred turf-route stakes. But the final part of the race conditions opens the races to horses bred outside Illinois who haven’t won a stakes race and have started in Illinois since Aug. 15. That doesn’t make a huge difference in the Cicero, but in the Stickney, it lets in the Kentucky-bred Lots o’ Lex, the probable favorite, as well as Distorted Type, who has a better chance than her 12-1 morning-line odds indicate.
Seven of the nine horses in the Cicero, race 8 on the Saturday card, are Illinois-breds, and they are pretty good in their own right. Super Soldier would be an appealing play were the race a half-furlong shorter than its 1 1/16-mile distance, and if that broadening race condition didn’t let Crewman into the field. Super Soldier, a miler type, races on a course that should flatter his front-running style, but Crewman also will want the lead, and Super Soldier probably is optimally effective over a shorter distance. He is drawn favorably on the outside and is a threat for trainer Michele Boyce and jockey Julio Felix.
Yankee Dealer, who won for an $80,000 claiming tag on a quick junket to Saratoga this summer, will appreciate the Cicero distance and has almost always run well over the Hawthorne course, with a win and three second-place finishes from five starts on it. He’ll need Crewman to at least keep Super Soldier honest but might offer a touch of value after running a bit below his best form while finishing fifth last out in the Teleprompter, an overnight Arlington stakes.
Fourth in the Teleprompter was Peej, who had a poor start, found traffic, and rallied to miss by less than two lengths. That performance followed three straight wins, and Peej has worked twice since moving over to Hawthorne. He’s the pick to win but could easily be bet below fair odds. An improving 4-year-old, Peej is drawn on the rail under Jerome Lermyte.
Lots o’ Lex, meanwhile, just needs to run back to her Oct. 3 allowance win over the Hawthorne course to capture the Stickney, race 6. Lots o’ Lex beat a similar group in June at Arlington, then was in too tough in the Grade 3 Modesty and didn’t show her best racing over the unique Kentucky Downs course before winning convincingly at Hawthorne.
Lovely Loyree also fits decently in the Stickney but simply was no match late for Lots o’ Lex in the recent Hawthorne allowance. Also worthy of consideration is Be Playful, who finished second to Notte d’Oro in an overnight stakes at Arlington but has improved steadily for her 4-year-old season and could be sitting on a career-best performance.