Hot Shot Kid looks to rebound in Minnesota Turf

Hot Shot Kid won four straight races last year at Canterbury Park and will be looking to start a new streak at the track Saturday when he runs in the $50,000 Minnesota Turf.

The race is one of two stakes restricted to horses bred in Minnesota on the program. The card also features the $50,000 Minnesota Turf Distaff.

The stakes are to be run at the “about” distance of 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf.

Mac Robertson, who trains Hot Shot Kid, will have a collective five starters in the two stakes races, with all of the horses owned by their breeders, he noted. Of his starters, four are stakes winners and one is multiple stakes-placed.

“Anytime you breed a stakes winner, and the breeder is the owner, you’re proud of raising a horse like that,” Robertson said. “Anytime you breed a horse that wins a stakes, that’s hard to do. It means a lot to them.”

And to Robertson.

“I like seeing stakes winners in my stalls,” he said. “It never gets old.”

Hot Shot Kid won five consecutive races last year in a streak that started at Oaklawn. His wins included the Minnesota Derby and Victor S. Myers Stakes at Canterbury, both for horses bred in Minnesota. Hot Shot Kid will be stretching back to two turns off a runner-up finish in the $50,000 10,000 Lakes at six furlongs in his first start of the Canterbury meet May 19.

“He worked really good the other day, looks good,” Robertson said. “I like that he got the one-hole going seven and a half.”

Dean Butler has the mount for owner Warren L. Bush.

Robertson’s other starters in the race are A P Is Loose, who won last year’s Minnesota Turf and was sixth last out in the 10,000 Lakes, and Teddy Time, another stakes winner on the grass at Canterbury who is making his first start since September.

In the Distaff, Robertson will saddle both Honey’s Sox Appeal and First Hunter.

“I think both will run well, they’re doing well,” Robertson said. “I expect both of them to be right there.”

Honey’s Sox Appeal is looking for her fourth stakes win, while First Hunter is chasing her first after running second in last year’s Distaff.