Speed makes Mohs dangerous in Hawthorne Derby

STICKNEY, Ill. – Track management’s decision to postpone the $100,000 Hawthorne Derby for one week appears to have been a prudent one.

The lone open stakes race of the Hawthorne fall-winter meet, the Hawthorne Derby had been scheduled for Oct. 16, but an already sodden grass course and the prospect of more rain meant the race either would be rained off turf or run over a boggy course. This has been a relatively dry week, there’s little chance of Saturday rain, and the nine-furlong Hawthorne Derby should be contested over decent ground.

Only seven horses were entered, but it’s a solid and diverse field, including shippers from Kentucky, Indiana, and New Jersey.

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The New Jersey horse is Mohs, listed at a generous 5-1 on the track’s morning line and a major player under leading rider Jareth Loveberry. Trained by Patrick McBurney, Mohs’s lone stakes try came in the Grade 3 Saranac at Saratoga, where he hit the gate at the start and wound up in no man’s land, racing too far behind a slow pace, then finishing evenly for sixth. McBurney left him in an off-turf allowance Sept. 24 at Monmouth even while saying he thought Mohs preferred turf to dirt, and Mohs stepped up with a strong performance in his first test at a distance as long as nine furlongs Mohs led until the final jump when he was nailed by the sharp older horse Croatian.

Loveberry rides aggressively and Mohs is likely to go from his outside draw, with a chance to lead this race all the way.

Last Samurai, based in Kentucky with trainer Dallas Stewart, is listed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite, but that price might put too much stock in the Malibu Moon colt’s career-best performance last out in the Greenwood Cup at Parx Racing. That 1 1/2-mile dirt contest was a far different kind of race than Saturday’s, though Last Samurai did beat older horses winning a nine-furlong grass allowance at Colonial Downs this past summer. Last Samurai finished ninth in the Dueling Grounds Derby, apparently failing to take to the European-style course at Kentucky Downs.

The Dueling Grounds Derby was Grey Streak’s most recent start, and his sixth-place finish there was close to a career-best performance. Trained by Rusty Arnold, Grey Streak does show an improving pattern but will need another step forward to contend.

Royal Prince should be no worse than second choice coming from Indiana for trainer Brad Cox. Already with eight starts this year, Royal Prince can stay nine furlongs, but he is an exposed horse at this point in his career.

The Hawthorne Derby goes as race 6, with post time of 5:30 Central.

Bramble Queen favored

The favored Bramble Queen should be tough in the $60,000 Illini Princess, a 1 1/16-mile grass race for Illinois-bred fillies and mares that drew 11 entrants.

Bramble Queen, based at Monmouth with former Chicago trainer Mike Dini, already has shipped twice to Chicago this year, finishing third in the Grade 3 Modesty and winning the Mike Spellman Memorial for statebreds despite making a very early move that nearly caught up to her at the finish.

She could be challenged by Summer Day, second in the Spellman, and a pair of Michele Boyce-trained 3-year-olds, Cat Attack and Katie M’Lady.