Top two favorites vulnerable in Saturday feature

STICKNEY, Ill. – Imposing Grace, a Grade 3 winner, returns from a layoff of nearly six months in the featured third race Saturday at Hawthorne.

The Grade 3 win, however, came two summers ago in the Arlington Matron, a Polytrack race. Shortly thereafter, Imposing Grace underwent surgery to remove bone chips from her ankle, and she has not looked like the same horse since. Her most recent start came in April at Hawthorne, and in it, Imposing Grace lost by nearly 30 lengths and went to the sidelines again. At morning-line odds of 5-2 on Saturday, bettors should be lining up to play against the mare.

Opposing the 8-5 morning-line favorite, Synderella, might also prove wise. The 4-year-old Synderella is a prolific winner, with a career record of 11 for 25. She handles turf, dirt, and synthetic, but she already has been hard used this season. Synderella has made 11 starts in a campaign that began in mid-March and raced eight times during the Arlington meet while, for the most part, admirably holding her form. Asking for another high-end performance Saturday might be asking too much.

There are four other fillies and mares entered in the race, fundamentally a third-level dirt-route allowance also open to $40,000 claimers but with other allowance conditions appended. Phaniebdancing is the pick to post a mild upset. She, unlike Synderella, did not transfer her dirt form to Arlington’s Polytrack, and a return to Hawthorne could return Phaniebdancing to the competitive form she showed this past spring. A 3-year-old, Phaniebdancing has never finished worse than third in eight Hawthorne starts, and unlike Synderella, she had a somewhat quiet summer, leaving her room to grow this fall.

Distinctive Review ran one big race here last spring, beating Phaniebdancing by more than five lengths with an assist from an easy lead. A similar trip from the rail Saturday looks unlikely on paper, but Distinctive Review would have a chance if the early pace is slow to develop.