Hotshot Anna no cinch on turf in Scherer Memorial
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
About this time last year at Fair Grounds, Hotshot Anna reached a tipping point in her career – literally and unfortunately.
Hotshot Anna is a sensible horse, but when a strong wind came up and loudly blew something over as she was being bathed outside owner-trainer Hugh Robertson’s Fair Grounds barn late last autumn, Hotshot Anna reared up, tipped over, and fractured her withers when she hit the cement.
The injury required stall rest and patience, but Hotshot Anna returned to action this past summer pretty much as good as ever. In September, she won the $400,000 Presque Isle Masters for the second year in a row, and on Saturday, after spending the 2018-19 meet in recovery mode, Hotshot Anna is set to actually race at Fair Grounds when she starts in an appealing renewal of the $75,000 Richard Scherer Memorial Stakes.
The race is over 5 1/2 furlongs on grass, and Robertson has long been sure about Hotshot Anna’s racing-surface preferences – she’s clearly best on synthetics, likes dirt least of all, and can run a good, solid race on turf.
Hotshot Anna is 2 for 2 on turf this year, scoring a sharp Arlington allowance win and, in her most recent start, capturing a high-end open sprint allowance at Keeneland. Both races were good enough to win Saturday’s contest, but unlike on synthetics, Hotshot Anna has no decisive edge over several of these horses on grass.
There is a completely new player in the division – Blue Uluru, a European import trained by Al Stall for owners Nick Varney and Amy King who was sent to Fair Grounds to take advantage of a stakes schedule rich in filly-and-mare turf sprints. Blue Uluru has won 6 of 16 starts overseas – and just raced Oct. 18 at Dundalk – while getting plenty of recent experience racing around turns over the synthetic track at Dundalk.
“She shipped over really well, looks good, very sound, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, and eating everything we’re throwing at her,” Stall said. “She’s super fit. We’ll see what happens, but she’s fast.”
A Little Bit Me finished fourth and second in recent graded turf-sprint stakes in Kentucky and makes her first start Saturday for trainer Brendan Walsh, leaving the barn of trainer Richard Baltas. A Little Bit Me has been racing for well over a year without any real break, and it’s hard to see her doing any better than reproducing her recent form.
Twelve are entered in the main body of the field, with four more on the also-eligible list. Post time for the feature, race 9, is 4:35 p.m. Central. There’s no rain in the forecast, and the turf course should be firm.
