Gold Hawk's one to follow at Fair Grounds

As if posting an early warning to those talented youngsters who will

transcend into the coming spring's three-year-old crop on Wednesday, Winchell

Thoroughbreds' Gold Hawk, an impressive strapping son of 2003 Belmont

Stakes winner Empire Maker, displayed his wares in New Orleans late in the

afternoon Friday when winning an allowance and $50,000 optional claiming mile

and 70 yard-affair at Fair Grounds.

The bay juvenile conditioned by Fair Grounds defending trainer champion Steve

Asmussen was patiently ridden by jockey Ricardo Santana Jr., who tucked him in

along the rail and allowed him to settle in ground-saving fashion well off the

early pace of :23 4/5 and :48. However, entering the stretch Santana took Gold

Hawk off the rail and began circling those in front of him, brushed lightly with

one rival despite left-handed whipping, gained the advantage at the

sixteenth-pole and then drew off late under Santana's hand ride to win by 3 1/2

lengths in a final time of 1:43 4/5.

"That horse," recalled Santana in understated tones a day later, "is a very

good horse. He ran huge for me. I took him back early to school him a little

bit, teach him to rate and allow him to get some dirt in his face and he handled

all that very well.

"But the thing that he really showed me was that he wants to go a lot

longer," Santana said.  "That race (Friday) was only a mile and 70 yards.

He was just drawing off on his own at the end. I was not using the whip at all.

He was just reaching out in the late stages without me asking him for anything."

Gold Hawk, who is out of Carl Pollard's 2000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies

champion Caressing, made his first start at Churchill Downs November 30 and

broke his maiden that day with a 2 1/4-length score.

One possible caveat concerning Gold Hawk's future at Fair Grounds in the

series that leads up to the 100th renewal of the $1 million Louisiana Derby

March 29 is that Winchell's Asmussen-trained Tapiture, winner of the Kentucky

Jockey Club at Churchill Downs, is also in residence at Fair Grounds. Although

no plans concerning the pair's individual futures have been announced, it would

make sense that one of them may be headed elsewhere to keep them apart as long

as possible.

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