Hotshot Anna must overcome injury layoff in Chicago Handicap

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – In August 2016 Hotshot Anna made her career debut, finishing sixth in a sprint maiden race over Arlington’s Polytrack. She did not race on a synthetic surface for her next 14 starts.

Last June, Hotshot Anna – by then a stakes winner – returned to the synthetic surface at Arlington, and, boy, did that change her career arc. Hotshot Anna won the Chicago Handicap by almost six lengths in a track-record 1:20.93 for seven furlongs.

A year later, in Saturday’s renewal of the Grade 3, $100,000 Chicago Handicap, Hotshot Anna has proven her superiority on synthetics, having gone on last fall to romp in the Grade 2, $400,000 Presque Isle Downs Masters over the Tapeta Footings surface there. The questions now are whether she’s ready for her first start since the Sept. 17 Masters and if she can perform at the same level this year following a long injury layoff.

Bettors are likely to answer “yes” to both and make Hotshot Anna the heavy favorite Saturday under leading rider Jose Valdivia Jr. Hotshot Anna, the 123-pound highweight, is one of nine entrants in the Chicago, for fillies and mares going seven furlongs. The Chicago is race 8 on a very playable nine-race program.

Lines of demarcation are likely to be sharp in the betting, with Student Body the strong second choice behind Hotshot Anna and the rest of the field considerably longer prices. Student Body might also have a synthetic-surface affinity: Her lone start on such a surface, last September at Arlington, produced an eight-length allowance-race win. Student Body and jockey Sophie Doyle appear to be controlling speed from the rail Saturday, and trainer Chris Davis said she has been aimed at this race since April.

Student Body, a 5-year-old by Colonel John, has strictly been and all-or-nothing type, winning half her 10 starts and losing badly in the other half.

“She’s just a finicky mare if things don’t go her way,” said Davis.

It was Hotshot Anna’s brain that got her in trouble over the winter at Fair Grounds, where she was nearing her first start since the Masters. A gust of wind blew something over outside owner-trainer Hugh Robertson’s barn while Hotshot Anna was being bathed. She spooked, went up on her hind legs, fell onto concrete, and fractured her withers, an injury that required extended stall rest to fully heal.

The injury shouldn’t compromise Hotshot Anna in the Chicago, but rust might. Robertson had in mind to start Hotshot Anna in an allowance-race prep for this start, but nothing ever worked out for the mare, a 5-year-old daughter of Trappe Shot named after Robertson’s granddaughter. Seven furlongs is a difficult distance for a long-layoff comeback start, Robertson said last week, and Hotshot Anna almost certainly won’t be at her best Saturday.

As well as Hotshot Anna ran after she got back to synthetic racing last year, she won’t need her best to return to action a short-priced winner.