Hawk's Girl Wins for Ailing Owner

While Arlington Park’s International Festival of Racing this Saturday remains the focus of the 2011 Chicago Thoroughbred racing season, other scenarios are playing out on the stage of life as we know it.

One of those occurred last Saturday when John Hillebrand’s Hawk’s Girl won the eighth race of the afternoon while ridden by Jermaine Bridgmohan.

Hillebrand, a longtime Illinois owner and breeder, was still in the hospital for Saturday’s race after receiving a kidney transplant the previous Tuesday.  The kidney donor was Hillebrand’s daughter Angela Hillebrand Suwanski.

Angela Suwanski is the wife of jockey agent Jon Suwanski, who books the mounts of Hawk’s Girl’s winning rider Bridgmohan.

Jere Smith, Jr., son of Arlington’s late third-leading all-time trainer J. R. Smith Sr., serves as the conditioner of Hawk’s Girl, and John Hillebrand IV was on hand at Arlington for the winner’s circle ceremonies on behalf of his father.