Robertson – make that Mr. Robertson – worthy of respect on four-stakes card

Mr. Jagermeister is the best-known Minnesota-bred in training, but Wednesday evening at Canterbury Park, the site of four Minnesota-bred stakes races, seems more centered on Mr. Robertson.

Trainer Mac Robertson isn’t running his entire barn on this 10-race program – just a sizable portion of it. He has 19 horses spotted in seven different races, with entrants in all four $50,000 stakes, including multiple runners in two 7 1/2-furlong turf races, one sex-restricted, the other open.

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Mr. Jagermeister is among the entrants in that open grass route, the Ralph Strangis, but in the first place, turf routing, until proven otherwise, is not really his game, and in the second, Mr. Jagermeister wasn’t quite on his game June 17 in the 10,000 Lakes Stakes.

To be fair, Robertson double-teamed him in that six-furlong sprint race, sending Cinco Star to hound Mr. Jagermeister into an intemperate early and middle pace before the Robertson-trained Hot Shot Kid attacked in upper stretch, sending Mr. Jagermeister to his first defeat in a statebred-restricted race. Even accounting for the rabbit’s presence, Mr. Jagermeister never looked entirely comfortable that evening facing competition he typically has dominated, and it’s tough to see things going much better for him as a front-running type in a race packed with pace.

Hot Shot Kid, who won this race last year (when it was called the Minnesota Turf), also is among the entrants, and Hot Shot Kid, while not as fast as Mr. Jagermeister, is a more versatile horse, capable of running long and short, turf and dirt. The question with Hot Shot Kid, though, is how he’ll react coming back just two weeks after running hard to beat Mr. Jagermeister in the 10,000 Lakes.

Robertson also entered Cinco Star, who seems certain to flash speed from his rail draw; Mister Banjoman, another stretchout sprinter with speed; and the 9-year-old A P Is Loose, who won this race in 2017 and was second in it last year. A P Is Loose has the right closing style to capitalize on a taxing pace but starts for the first time since October.

The pick to win is neither a Robertson nor a Jagermeister but a 5-year-old named Twoko Bay. Twoko Bay was a fast-closing third in the 2019 Minnesota turf, has the right running style for the race flow, and got in what looked like an ideal long-layoff comeback run in a June 10 Canterbury dirt race.

Ready to Runaway on turf

Robertson has four of the nine entrants in the Minnesota Turf Distaff, and easily the most talented of them – and the shortest price – is Ready to Runaway.

Robertson and owner John Mentz claimed Ready to Runaway for $25,000 last June at Canterbury, and the filly has printed money for current connections. Fresh off the claim, she won three Minnesota-bred stakes last season worth a combined $250,000, and Ready to Runaway appears to be faster this year at age 4. Her three open-company starts at Oaklawn were strong, and she dominated Minnesota-breds in the $50,000 Glass Slipper two weeks ago.

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The Glass Slipper was a dirt sprint race, and while Ready to Runaway definitively showed last year she can carry her speed around two turns on dirt, she has yet to try turf. The filly is by First Dude out of Ready to Rip, by More than Ready, and ought to get enough grass pop from the dam’s side of her pedigree that her talent edge will carry the day.

“She’s run short, long, muddy, fast – I think she will handle the grass,” Robertson told Canterbury publicity. “She could run better.”

First Hunter won this race a year ago when trained by Robertson, from whom she was claimed later in the Canterbury meet, and she’s a win contender again at presumably playable odds. First Hunter went to the lead and held on to finish third June 17 in an open turf allowance race, her first start in four months, and she performs much better stalking the pace.

Scherer live with 3-year-olds

Trainer Gary Scherer could win both 3-year-old dirt sprint stakes on the card, with Rush Hour Traffic getting a narrow nod over the Robertson-trained Defend the Rose in the $50,000 Frances Genter, and Weekend Ride a solid play in the $50,000 Victor S. Myers.

Weekend Ride faced older horses June 10 in a comeback start he figured to need, while Rush Hour Traffic, winner of the Northern Lights Debutante last Canterbury season, prepped for her race in an open turf-sprint allowance on June 10.