Rated R Superstar gets class relief in Dark Star Cup

Rated R Superstar, a Grade 3 winner sprinting as a 3-year-old last season, gets class relief and a shorter distance when he ships in from Kentucky for Saturday’s $50,000 Dark Star Cup at Canterbury Park.

The 6 1/2-furlong Dark Star Cup is one of three stakes on the program. The others are two $50,000 races for Minnesota-breds going 7 1/2 furlongs: the Minnesota Turf and Minnesota Turf Distaff.

Last July, Rated R Superstar rallied from 9 1/2 lengths back to win the Grade 3 Carry Back by three-quarters of a length going seven furlongs at Gulfstream Park. His first two races this season came at a mile, and although he failed to finish better than third, he paired up 90 Beyer Speed Figures that look good against Saturday’s competition. He returns to listed company after finishing a non-threatening sixth in the Grade 3 Hanshin Cup on Arlington’s Polytrack.

Trainer Ken McPeek has not started a horse on dirt at Canterbury in the past five years, but he is 3 for 9 with a high $4.33 return on investment with horses, such as Rated R Superstar, switching from synthetic to dirt and routes to sprints.

Wings Locked Up and Shrewd Move have taken turns beating each other in their last two starts. Shrewd Move outfinished Wings Locked Up by three-quarters of a length as the 16-1 upset winner of the 5 1/2-furlong Paul Bunyan on May 6. Three weeks later, Shrewd Move finished 6 1/4 lengths behind the victorious Wings Locked Up in the six-furlong Ed Skinner over a sloppy track at Prairie Meadows.

Wabel merits consideration while cutting back from a mile for trainer Mac Robertson, who is 6 for 20 (30 percent, $2.85 ROI) with horses going from routes to sprints after breaks of 31 to 60 days.

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◗ Honey’s Sox Appeal, a two-time statebred stakes winner in her last three starts, goes in the Minnesota Turf Distaff. She is a half-sister to her uncoupled stablemate, the 6-year-old mare Thunder and Honey, who is 2 for 8 on turf. Robertson also has a third contender in First Hunter, who returns to the statebred ranks after finishing a close third against open company while making her first start since September.

◗ Robertson will send out A P Is Loose, the winner of the last two runnings of the Blair’s Cove at 1 1/16 miles, in the Minnesota Turf. His competition includes Two Chance, the runner-up in last year’s Blair’s Cove but idle since September, and Rugged Edge, attempting a comeback at age 8 after missing the 2016 season. Rugged Edge won the 2014 running of the Blair’s Cove and was fourth, beaten 1 3/4 lengths, in the 2015 race.

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