Hotshot Anna piles up the miles – and the cash

Hugh Robertson, no great fan of flying, drove from the Chicago area to Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Penn., to watch Hotshot Anna win the $100,000 Satin N Lace Stakes for the second year in a row on Monday.

Forget about Erie. With the money Hotshot Anna has earned Robertson – who both trains and owns the mare –he could fly first class around the globe a dozen times and barely feel it.

Hotshot Anna’s bankroll now stands at $623,440, making the $20,000 Robertson paid for her at the Keeneland September yearling sale in 2015 money very, very well spent. A good chunk of Hotshot Anna’s earnings came from her 2018 win in the $400,000 Presque Isle Downs Masters, and she’s on track to return to Pennsylvania for that race next month.

Hotshot Anna, who got an 86 Beyer Speed Figure for her win Monday (well off the 94 she earned in the same race a year ago), arrived back at Robertson’s barn Tuesday at noon looking not much worse for her travel.

“She ships fairly well, and it was nice and cool going out and coming back,” Robertson said.

Speaking of coming back, Hotshot Anna has come all the way back, or close to it, after fracturing her withers in December at Fair Grounds. Her morning training session complete, Hotshot Anna was getting a bath on a windy morning when something blew over next to her, spooked her, and sent her flopping down onto the concrete.

“She didn’t go all the way over,” Robertson said. “If she’d hit her head, it probably would’ve killed her.”

As it was, the fracture was non-displaced and merely required ample healing time. Hotshot Anna returned to the races finishing second June 29 in the Chicago Handicap, and sharply won a turf-sprint allowance race at Arlington before Monday’s success.

Robertson has done great work with bargain yearling-auction buys. Typically, he selects the yearlings, buys them, and offers pieces of the horses to other owners.

“I offered her to a few different clients and nobody wanted her,” he said. “She was pretty small, I guess, and they must not have liked the breeding.”

Robertson nearly sold Hotshot Anna last summer for a handsome sum and said he’s entered her in Keeneland’s November auction.

“I don’t know if I’ll go through with it or not,” he said. “I’ll probably get too much pressure from my family to keep her.”