Northern Playboy goes from maiden winner to stakes winner in Minnesota Derby

Northern Playboy, off a debut win in a maiden sprint, romped to victory Wednesday night at Canterbury in the $100,000 Minnesota Derby.

Northern Playboy won his debut, a six-furlong Minnesota-bred dash, by a neck on July 29, but that race was merely a stepping-stone to Wednesday’s route race for Minnesota-bred 3-year-olds. Rallying from mid-pack under Ry Eikleberry, Northern Playboy stormed to the lead in upper stretch and coasted to a 4 3/4-length score over 20-1 shot Love My Boss. Public Safety finished another 5 1/2 lengths back in third as 3-5 favorite Weekend Ride faded off the pace to finish last in an ugly defeat.

Hot-training Francisco Bravo (9-4-1-0 so far this racing week) sent out Northern Playboy. Bravo co-bred and co-owns Northern Playboy, a son of Latent Heat and the High Yield mare, Equity Event, with Dale Schenian. Northern Playboy ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:42.97 and paid $14.20.

Two other heavy favorites failed in the four Wednesday night Minnesota-bred stakes, but odds-on money machine Ready to Runaway was an easy winner of the $50,000 Glitter Star Stakes. Since trainer Mac Robertson and owner John Mentz claimed her for $25,000 on June 22, 2019, Ready to Runaway has won three $50,000 Minnesota-bred stakes and two more worth $100,000. She also has a Minnesota-bred allowance-race romp to her credit this meet and was competitive in open allowance races at Keeneland last fall and Oaklawn this spring.

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Wednesday, she made all the running under Roimes Chirinos, crossing the finish 8 1/2 lengths best, paying $2.40 to win, and running 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.20. Ready to Runaway is by First Dude out of Ready to Rip, by More than Ready.

The Robertson-trained Hot Shot Kid only could finish second in the $50,000 Wally’s Choice as Drop of Golden Sun ($15) was a gate-to-wire winner under Francisco Arrieta.

In the $100,000 Minnesota Oaks, Hotasapistol posted a $22.60 upset, beating even-money favorite Rush Hour Traffic by three-quarters of a length in a 1 1/16-mile dirt race for Minnesota-bred 3-year-old fillies.

Hotasapistol, a homebred owned by Gary and Brenda Bergsrud, is a daughter of Flat Out and Alacazar, by Dayjur. She’s trained by Clinton Stuart and was ridden Wednesday by Alonso Quinonez.