Hawthorne Race Course opens its 2013 Fall/Winter Meet on Friday, the first of 61 days of racing through to December 29. There are 12 stakes races on the calendar, including the $350,000 Grade II Hawthorne Gold Cup on November 30, and the $200,000 Grade III Hawthorne Derby, which kicks things off this Saturday. Saturday’s card is a special twilight event, with the first post at 5 PM CT, and the Derby, for three-year-olds running 1 1/8 miles on the turf, going as race number five.
It looks like the Derby will offer some good betting value, with the morning line favorite, Charming Kitten at 7-2. Although he’s had good results in tough company – most notably a third in the Grade I Bluegrass Stakes in April - his only win in seven starts this year came first time out in the Kitten’s Joy Stakes back in January, and he was a non-factor ninth in the Kentucky Derby. The Hawthorne Derby will see him back on turf, however, where he seems to do his best running.
Second choice in the ML is Five Iron (4-1) who has won three in a row, including the Grade III Saranac Stakes at Saratoga. All three of those wins have been wire-to-wire efforts, and he’s going to have to work to get to the front early in the Derby, coming out of the #8 post and having to contend with lots of speed in the form of Mongolian Saturday down in #2. Of the others, Infinite Magic (5-1) has moved forward recently with a win in the Grade III American Derby and second in the Grade II Del Mar.
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