Robertsons gearing up their female sprinters

Four hundred miles apart, at Arlington International in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., father-and-son trainers are preparing high-level female sprinters for the summer racing season.

Hugh Robertson at Arlington has Hotshot Anna ready to make her 2019 debut on June 29 in the Chicago Handicap, while at Canterbury, Hugh’s son Mac gave Amy’s Challenge her first work since she last raced May 4, finishing third in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff.

Amy’s Challenge began her career two summers ago at Canterbury and gained national attention when a blowout debut win in a 2-year-old maiden race produced a graded stakes-level 91 Beyer Speed Figure. Amy’s Challenge, for whatever reason, struggled to progress last year at age 3, but she finally surpassed that debut Beyer Figure this past January when she got a 97 for winning the American Beauty Stakes at Oaklawn.

That was no one-off performance, and Amy’s Challenge, after winning the Spring Fever at Oaklawn, missed a Grade 1 in the Madison at Keeneland by just a neck. The Humana Distaff marked her fourth start of a winter-spring cycle, and with Amy’s Challenge’s connections aiming at a late-season appearance in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, now seemed like a good time to keep the filly fresh.

“I’ll work her again at Canterbury and then we’ll look for a race and decide what want to do with her. We’ll run her a time or two and head for the Breeders’ Cup,” Mac Robertson said.

Down at Arlington, Hugh Robertson was looking for a race in which to start Hotshot Anna as a prep for the Chicago Handicap, and to his disappointment none could be found. Hotshot Anna hasn’t started since September, when she established herself as North America’s leading syntheticsurface female sprinter by winning the Grade 2, $400,000 Presque Isle Downs Masters by more than four lengths. That easy win followed similarly dominant victories in the 2018 Chicago Handicap and the $100,000 Satin N Lace, a Masters prep, making Hotshot Anna unbeaten after being switched to synthetics.

Hotshot Anna broke her withers over the winter at Fair Grounds when a gust of wind blew an object that spooked her while she was being bathed, and Hotshot Anna flipped over onto the pavement outside Hugh Robertson’s barn. Now, Robertson fears his mare will come into one of her major goals for 2019 a rusty horse.

“Seven furlongs is a pretty tough distance first time back and it’s been a long layoff, but she is training fine,” he said.

One Last Empress ready

Third time racing this year might be the right time for One Last Empress to win the first stakes race of her 4-year-old season.

One Last Empress won two Iowa-bred stakes last summer at Prairie Meadows, where she’s 4-3-0 from seven starts, and she appears to be the most likely winner of the $60,000 Mamie Eisenhower Stakes for older Iowa-bred fillies and mares on Friday night.

One Last Empress, trained by Ray Ashford for her breeder, Runaway Racing, was stretched to two turns for her last two starts of 2018 and didn’t especially enjoy it, and the sixfurlong Mamie Eisenhower is a much better distance fit.

Ashford gave her a Will Rogers Downs comeback run April 3 and on May 10 at Prairie Meadows One Last Empress finished strongly to win a sixfurlong Prairie allowance race with no conditions beyond an Iowa-bred restriction. Often on or near the lead in her earlier races, One Last Empress showed a new dimension settling near the back of the field and coming with a late run.

Among her six rivals is My Sister Madi, who won this race a year ago but has lost six starts since.