What next for futurity's top two?

CHICAGO - Plans are up in the air for the top two finishers in Saturday's for Illinois-bred 2-year-olds, a race that was visually impressive but slow against the clock.

Creative Force, making just his third start and first since winning a maiden race, won the futurity by two lengths over previously unbeaten Last Gran Standing, but, for whatever it's worth, the futurity proved to be the slowest of four 1 1/16-mile races run Saturday at Hawthorne. While Creative Force was timed in 1:46.75, $4,000 claimers in the day's first race went the same distance in 1:45.78, while three races before the futurity, the unheralded winner of an Illinois-bred maiden race clocked 1:46.04.

This is the reason Creative Force was assigned a Beyer Speed Figure of just 66, down from the 71 he had earned in his maiden win. But time does not tell all, and Creative Force ran much farther Saturday than any of his opponents, rallying while at least six paths wide on the far turn. Last Gran Standing, meanwhile, saved ground, but still had to thread his way through traffic, and may not have been at 100 percent for the race. In his previous victory, Last Gran Standing had injured one of his front hooves, and while the foot recovered between starts, trainer Brian Williamson was not able to train Last Gran Standing as hard as he might have liked.

"I only got two works in him before then because of the foot, and one of those was more like a two-minute lick," Williamson said. "I had to wait for that foot to heal up."

Last Gran Standing, Williamson said, could either wind up at a Kentucky farm for a winter break, or take it easy at Hawthorne until racing resumes here in late winter. Plans also are fluid for Creative Force, trainer Chris Block said after the race.

"In a normal year, I'd send him down to Fair Grounds and go from there, but since there's no Fair Grounds, I don't know," Block said.

Block planned to confer about Creative Force's future this week with his father, Dave, leader of the Block family partnership of owners.

Watch out for the 'Kid'

A grand total of three horses braved zero-degree weather to breeze Monday morning at Hawthorne, but the weatherman says relief is on the way, and the mercury could approach 30 by the time Wednesday's featured fourth race rolls around.

The fourth is for Illinois-bred second-level allowance sprinters, and on recent form shapes up as a battle between Rucker and Real Easy, the two-three finishers in two November races run under conditions much like Wednesday's.

But keep an eye out for the Williamson-trained Kaskaskia Kid, who has made only six starts in his career, and has not had the best luck in his three races this meet.