Hay Dakota needs hot pace in Honor the Hero

Hay Dakota is sure to race near the back of the pack early in the $50,000 Honor the Hero, one of two Monday stakes at Canterbury Park, but even at a distance short of his best, he figures to wind up near the front of the field – if not actually in front – at the finish.

The Honor the Hero will be contested at five furlongs on turf barring a rain-off onto the main track, and Hay Dakota is an established route horse. He also loves the Canterbury grass course, as evidenced by a 4-1-4 local record from nine starts, and has shown a strong enough turn of foot that a flying finish into tiring speed horses might work out in the Honor the Hero.

Joel Berndt trains Hay Dakota for owner Alice Mettler, and Hay Dakota’s 2017 highlight was a Canterbury win in the $100,000 Mystic Lake Mile. Hay Dakota went off form last fall and then went on vacation over the winter, but Berndt started working the gelding for his 5-year-old debut in late March at Hawthorne, and now Hay Dakota looks ready to do something.

His case for contention rests on the presence of four horses, including 3-1 morning-line favorite Wings Locked Up, who want to race on or near the lead and have the pace to get there. Outside closers Friday night were doing just fine mowing the Canterbury lawn, and an intemperate tempo could put Hay Dakota into the game.

It also would help Majestic Pride, with whom Hay Dakota traded turf decisions last summer at Canterbury. Majestic Pride also is much better established as a two-turn horse, and he might not have quite the acceleration that Hay Dakota has displayed on occasion.

If the race winds up on the main track, Wings Locked Up, who has a chance on turf, becomes strictly the horse to beat.

The Honor the Hero goes as race 7 at 4:27 p.m. Central and is immediately preceded by the $50,000 Northbound Pride Oaks, a one-mile grass race for 3-year-old fillies. Contention runs shallower here, with Sirenusa and Sippin Kitten the likeliest winners on turf and Tahoe Dream a player if the race is rained onto dirt.

Sirenusa has yet to show her two-turn chops but has started her career with eye-catching wins in a maiden race at Fair Grounds and an allowance at Keeneland for trainer Joe Sharp. Sirenusa, by Tiznow, is bred to get a mile, and English import Adam Beschizza has been sufficiently impressed that he travels from Kentucky to take the mount.

Sippin Kitten, with Leandro Goncalvez to ride for trainer Mike Maker, has only a maiden win last out atop her résumé, but she at least is proven around two turns, even if a turnback in distance to one mile on Monday from 1 3/16 miles last out at Keeneland might leave her scrambling to match the quickness of stretch-out sprinter Sirenusa.

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