Eagle and Scuba Head Hawthorne Gold Cup Return

Restoration of the Hawthorne Gold Cup (G3) after a one-year hiatus created options for grade 1-placed, grade 3 winner Eagle, who is the 8-5 morning line favorite in the 1 1/4-mile test Nov. 25 at Hawthorne Race Course.

Owner/breeder William S. Farish and trainer Neil Howard spied an opportunity for the homebred son of Candy Ride —Sea Gull, by Mineshaft , after the Illinois Department of Agriculture released $3.5 million in purse subsidies that allowed Hawthorne to offer again both the Gold Cup and the Hawthorne Derby, which was run Oct. 28.

"Obviously the Clark Handicap being a grade 1 would have been a tougher spot, so we thought this might be a better avenue for him," Howard said. "He's been training very nicely for this race."

Eagle has been competing exclusively in stakes company for the past two years, and while he has only graced the winner's circle twice since April 2016, he is rarely out of the hunt. Out of 14 starts in 2016-17, he has won or placed nine times. Eagle's last win came in the Michael G. Schaefer Memorial Stakes July 15 at Indiana Grand Race Course, which he followed with a second in the Philip H. Iselin Stakes (G3) at Monmouth Park.

"I think, when you are competing at that level, even in races where they've finished off the board, they've given a decent effort," Howard said. "Sometimes you get into some races where the timing isn't quite right. That just happens. This horse always gives 100%."

On paper the Hawthorne Gold Cup appears to be a two-horse race between Eagle and 9-5 second choice Scuba, a multiple graded stakes winner raced by David Ross' DAARS and trainer Brendan Walsh.

Scuba, a 6-year-old gelded son of Tapit —Cuaba, by Smoke Glacken, strung together three consecutive stakes wins by a combined 12 1/4 lengths from September through November of last year but has struggled to find the winner's circle in 2017. The grade 2 winner's best most recent effort was a second in the Birdstone Stakes at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 3.

The eight-horse Gold Cup field includes one other graded stakes winner in Hay Dakota, a 4-year-old son of Haynesfield—Church by the Sea, by Harlan's Holiday, who won the Commonwealth Turf Stakes (G3T) at Churchill Downs in 2016. Racing for Alice Mettler and trained by Joel Berndt, the gelding last won a stakes June 18 in the Mystic Lake Mile on the grass at Canterbury Park. Hay Dakota will be making his fifth start on the dirt in the Gold Cup.

Even though the field is not loaded with black-type performers, Howard said he isn't taking anything for granted.

"Scuba has the past performances over these route dirt races," he said, noting Scuba's stakes wins at 12, 13, and 14 furlongs, "but I have always been careful not to discount anybody. These hard-knocking, solid, upper-level horses that know how to win are the ones you have to watch out for."

Entries: Hawthorne Gold Cup H. (G3)

Hawthorne Race Course, Saturday, November 25, 2017, Race 6

• Grade III
• 1 1/4m
• Dirt
• $150,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 5:30 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Hay Dakota (KY)	Constantino Roman	112	Joel Berndt	12/1
2	2Futile (KY)	Rodney A. Prescott	114	Chris A. Hartman	6/1
3	3Side Pocket (FL)	Victor Santiago	112	Jere R. Smith, Jr.	15/1
4	4Volgograd (KY)	Edgar Perez	111	Hugo Rodriguez	20/1
5	5Eagle (KY)	Ty Kennedy	117	Neil J. Howard	8/5
6	6Van Damme (KY)	T. D. Houghton	113	Robert M. Gorham	8/1
7	7Empirestrikesagain (IL)	Santo Sanjur	112	Anthony Mitchell	15/1
8	8Scuba (KY)	Alonso Quinonez	117	Brendan P. Walsh	9/5