Hotshot Anna keeps streak alive in Richie Scherer Memorial

Hotshot Anna won her fifth race in a row Saturday at Fair Grounds – but just barely.

Only after an all-out late drive did Hotshot Anna run down pacesetting Play On, who took a clear lead to the sixteenth pole in the $75,000 Richie Scherer Memorial Stakes only to be nipped by a head at the wire. Hotshot Anna had two lengths to make up at the eighth pole and was more than five back three furlongs out when jockey Marcelino Pedroza tapped her on the shoulder, signaling it was time to kick into high gear.

“She responded and I thought she could get there,” said Pedroza.

Hotshot Anna not only has won five straight starts but also has captured nine of her last 10 races, her lone defeat during that string a second-place finish this past summer in the Chicago Handicap, her first start since she fractured her withers last winter at Fair Grounds in a freak accident. Saturday’s score came on the Fair Grounds grass course, but Hotshot Anna’s raft of wins includes back-to-back victories in the $400,000 Presque Isle Masters over the synthetic surface at Presque Isle Downs.

“She ran well. She just isn’t quite as good on the turf” as on synthetics, said trainer Hugh Robertson.

Robertson also owns Hotshot Anna and picked her out as a yearling. The 5-year-old mare, by Trappe Shot out of Avalos, by Holy Bull, now is 12-6-1 from 25 starts with earnings of just over $950,000. Hotshot Anna could surpass $1 million in earnings this winter at Fair Grounds, which hosts three more older filly and mare turf sprint stakes during the meet.

Play On ran well in defeat, finishing just a head clear of May Lily, who rallied from even farther back than Hotshot Anna. Winning time over a firm course was 1:04.11 for 5 1/2 furlongs and Hotshot Anna, the favorite, paid $5.20 to win.