Polar Plunge seeks repeat in Lady Slipper Stakes

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Multiple stakes winner and defending race champion Polar Plunge leads the cast for the $60,000 Lady Slipper Stakes at Canterbury Park on Saturday. The Lady Slipper will be contested at six furlongs on the main track.

Last year’s winner will have her hands full trying to repeat, as several stakes winners will line up against her, including three saddled by 2013 leading trainer Mac Robertson and a duo trained by Bernell Rhone.

Rhone trainees will take the outside posts in the field of eight, with 2013 Frances A. Genter Stakes and Minnesota Oaks winner Badge of Glory on the far outside and speedster Blues Edge in post No. 7. Badge of Glory had a tough time with the sloppy going at Prairie Meadows in her prep race, while Blues Edge will be making her first start of the season.

The Robertson trio is led by 2013 Minnesota Distaff Sprint winner Somerset Swinger. Somerset Swinger got up in the final strides to head Polar Plunge and capture the Distaff Sprint on Festival Day in her season finale last year.

Happy Hour Honey, another Robertson trainee, was the runner-up in last year’s Lady Slipper when unable to withstand a late rally from Polar Plunge and giving way in deep stretch. Outrun in an Oaklawn Park allowance race in her 2014 debut, Happy Hour Honey will need to carry her speed to beat this group.

The final Robertson entrant is Gypsy Melody. Third in the 2013 Distaff Sprint behind Somerset Swinger and Polar Plunge, the 6-year-old mare debuted sharply this season, finishing a solid second in an Arlington Park optional claimer May 8.

The multiple allowance winner Sputey’s Cabin and Amazingly Karen complete the lineup.