‘Very Competitive’: Two Highest-Earning Minnesota-Breds Meet Again In Wednesday’s 10,000 Lakes

The two Minnesota-bred Thoroughbreds with the highest career earnings, Mr. Jagermeister and Hot Shot Kid, will face off in the 10,000 Lakes Stakes Wednesday at Canterbury Park, racing six furlongs for a purse of $50,000. The 5-year-old Mr. Jagermeister, winner of 11 of 23 starts and $578,627 in purses, and 6-year-old Hot Shot Kid, who won five stakes, including the 10,000 Lakes, at the Shakopee, Minn. racetrack in 2019 and has amassed $545,404 in purses from 29 career starts, meet for the first time since the 2018 running of this same stake race.

That year Mr. Jagermeister got the best of it finishing 8 1/2 lengths in front of second-place Hot Shot Kid. He then went on to win three additional stakes that summer before being named the Canterbury horse of the meet, an honor bestowed on Hot Shot Kid last year.

“This is going to be a very exciting race; a very competitive race,” Mr. Jagermeister's trainer and co-owner Valorie Lund said. Leandro Goncalves has the mount. “[Mr. Jagermeister] is ready,” Lund said, but questions the prohibitively favored 2 to 5 morning line hung on her horse. “I've watched Hot Shot Kid training both here and at Oaklawn. He looks great,” she said.

Mac Robertson, perennial leading trainer at Canterbury Park and conditioner of Hot Shot Kid, is also quick to acknowledge the competition.

“Mr. Jagermeister is very good,” Robertson said, speaking Sunday from Delaware Park where he is preparing his East Coast string. He intended to run Hot Shot Kid at Keeneland but when that meet was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he changed plans and entered at Oaklawn where Hot Shot Kid ran a distant tenth in a sprint. Robertson has named last year's leading jockey Francisco Arietta to ride. He also entered Cinco Star in the five-horse field.

The 10,000 Lakes is the second race on an 11-race program that begins at 4:30 p.m., while the co-featured $50,000 Lady Slipper Stakes is the sixth. Robertson and Lund are also represented in the Lady Slipper. Robertson will run 7-year-old Honey's Sox Appeal and Ready to Runaway. Lund has entered Firstmate, a 5-year-old mare previously trained by Joe Sharp, for owners Barry and Joni Butzow of Eden Prairie, Minn. They must beat Lady Slipper defending champion Ari Gia and trainer Jose Silva, Jr.

“I'm tickled to have her,” Lund said of Firstmate. “There is a ton of speed in the race. I like the outside [post position] draw.” Firstmate recorded the fastest four furlong workout of the morning on June 10 in preparation. “She did it so easy,” Lund said.

Robertson has a very strong hand in the Lady Slipper. “I wouldn't trade my two for any of them,” he said. Honey's Sox Appeal is a multiple stakes winner who Robertson said “was in a brutally tough race at Oaklawn and she didn't run that bad.”

Ready to Runaway, claimed for $25,000, subsequently won three consecutive stakes last year at Canterbury. She raced three times at Oaklawn this spring with two third-place and one second-place finish, earning speed figures better than last year.

“She's never run a bad race really,” Robertson said. Not one to be without a plan, he considered potential strategy for Wednesday while examining the field. “We'll probably send one and take one back. This is a really good race.” He also entered Clickbait, but she will be a scratch and is reentered for Thursday. The field includes 2017 Minnesota Oaks winner Double Bee Sting and Pinup Girl, winner of the 2018 Lady Slipper.

Racing resumes Tuesday and runs through Thursday with first post at 4:30 p.m. each afternoon. More information is available at www.canterburypark.com .

The post ‘Very Competitive’: Two Highest-Earning Minnesota-Breds Meet Again In Wednesday’s 10,000 Lakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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‘Living My Dream’: Jockey Dean Butler Carries On At 48

Dean Butler doesn't mind if you think he's hard-headed for continuing to ride Thoroughbreds at 48. Basically, he agrees.

“I've had nine concussions in my career. My head has taken a pretty good beating,” said Butler, who was born and grew up in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Butler was named to ride three horses today, but he didn't get the chance. Today's third-through-ninth races were cancelled because of heavy rain and lightning throughout the Tampa Bay area. The decision was made for the safety of the horses, horsemen, jockeys and patrons.

All wagers on any of the cancelled races are, of course, refundable.

Thoroughbred racing continues Saturday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:25 p.m.

Slightly less than two years ago, Butler incurred three fractured vertebrae in a spill at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn. His injury did not require surgery, but a routine examination that included a brain scan led to doctors discovering a basilar tip brain aneurysm, a potentially life-threatening condition.

Butler underwent a procedure in September of 2017 in which doctors inserted flexible metal coils to 'correct” the aneurysm and a stent to hold the coils in place. And, wouldn't you know it: he was able to return to work in time for the 2017-2018 Tampa Bay Downs meeting.

He points out that had he not gone down in the Canterbury race, the aneurysm probably would not have been found and could have ruptured at a future date.

OK, you still don't get why he stays at it. … but then, you aren't a jockey. And the explanation is pretty simple, really.

“I love what I do, I love the horses and I love the competition,” said Butler, the Senor Tequila Mexican Grill Jockey of the Month at Tampa Bay Downs. “And I like working with the horses to see what I can do to help get the most out of their ability.

“It's something I've always wanted to do since I was a little kid, so basically I'm living my dream. As long as I'm fit and I'm feeling good and I still enjoy what I'm doing, I'm going to keep going with it.”

Butler, who has ridden 2,210 career winners, has won 10 track riding titles: five at Canterbury, four at Philadelphia (now Parx Racing) and one at Atlantic City.

He enjoyed a moment few athletes get to experience last September when he was inducted into the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame. The ceremony took on greater meaning with his father Ted and his brothers Denis, Danny and David in attendance.

“That was the first time my dad was ever at Canterbury, which made it really cool,” Butler said. “He's 90 now and in really good health, and I'm thankful he's still able to watch me ride.”

Displaying a flair for the dramatic, Butler rode two stakes winners on the day following the induction ceremony. Butler's father and brother Danny were also at Tampa Bay Downs three years ago when he notched career victory No. 2,000 on then-4-year-old gelding Impromptu.

Although he doesn't have the volume of business at Tampa Bay Downs as in Minnesota, Butler has taken the past few weeks to remind bettors and fans that his skills haven't eroded. Five recent victories, including four for trainer Bernell Rhone, earned him the SenÞor Tequila Mexican Grill honor.

Butler accepts that his business will be a little slower in Oldsmar, which allows him to spend more time with daughters Kayleigh, 12, and Kendall, 8. His passion for the job hasn't diminished; make a road trip to Shakopee this summer to see for yourself, if you'd like.

“Some of the younger riders might look better, they might look stronger, but the knowledge and experience I have can overcome that,” said Butler, who began his career in 1992 at Aqueduct after absorbing early lessons from Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg.

“The more you ride, the more you get to know how much horse you have underneath you and how fast you're going (early in a race), and those are huge advantages,” Butler said.

It's said that time waits for no one, but in a sport where youth cannot be denied, Butler is one of at least a half-dozen older (read: 45-and-up) Oldsmar jockeys who still can bring it, using both strength and finesse as called for.

“I've always been the type of rider who usually lets the horse do most of the running and lets them tell me how they want to run,” Butler said. “Then when I pick them up and ask them, hopefully they're underneath me and they run for me.”

Sounds like the type of thrilling experience anyone can relate to.

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