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.