Canterbury Park: Wild Jacobs whips elders in John Bullit

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Wild Jacob, stepping up to face older horses for the first time, collected his third straight stakes victory in the $50,000 John Bullit Stakes at Canterbury Park.

The 3-year-old Wild Jacob tracked off an early pace set by longshot El Poppie, made a three-wide move on the turn for home, and thundered down the center of the racetrack to take the 1 1/16-mile race by a length in 1:43.05. Even-money favorite Stachys finished fourth and never threatened.

“He looked like he would hang in the stretch, but he kicked it into gear,” said winning owner-trainer Stanley Mankin. “He really runs a fast last sixteenth.

Wild Jacob’s John Bullit win came after he took the Prairie Meadows Mile and the Dean Kutz on the Canterbury turf.

“We moved him up bit by bit, race by race and he has really proven up to the task,” said Mankin. “We wanted to run him on the grass and this was our only spot, so we thought we’d try him against older and see what we have.”

Wild Jacob paid $5.80 to win as the second choice over the firm turf course.

Hogy handles dirt in Barenscheer Juvenile

Hogy, on the dirt for the first time, sat off the early pace blazed by filly Grand Forest and outfinished Iowa shipper Squid in deep stretch to take the $50,000 Brian Barenscheer Juvenile Stakes.

A- 2-year-old gelding by Offlee Wild, Hogy won for the third straight time in the 5 1/2- furlong sprint.

“He’s only been on the real dirt twice in his life and that was galloping here the last two days,” said trainer Joel Berndt. “He did a nice job and he’s still learning but he’ll do even better back on the Poly going longer.”

Next up for Hogy will be the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity at Arlington Park, a one-turn mile over the Polytrack.

Hogy ($3) covered the distance in 1:05.36 over a fast track.