SHAKOPEE, MN – Trainer Mac Robertson looks to get a quick start on compiling stakes wins this season at Canterbury Park, tacking up the morning line favorites in the $50,000 L’Etoile du Nord for fillies and mares and the Paul Bunyan sprint stakes Saturday.

In the L’Etoile du Nord, Thoughtless, is back to defend her title versus four opponents including stablemate Hotshot Anna.  Though the field is small, each entrant is a stakes winner.

From the inside, Robertino Diodoro’s Fight to Glory possesses early speed and is the owner of wins in the Sun Devil and Phoenix Stakes at Turf Paradise this season.

Though Thoughtless hasn’t won since back to back stakes scores last May, she has been stales placed at Canterbury, Arlington and, most recently, Oaklawn Park.  She’ll try to stalk the early pace and pounce late and would benefit greatly if the outside filly, Don Schnell’s Escape Clause, utilizes her early turn of foot to keep the pace honest.

Hotshot Anna, winner of the Northbound Pride Oaks here last season, possesses a bit more speed than her stablemate and could also be used to keep the pace brisk.

Shar Ran, a Suzanne Stables homebred, is lightly raced but has only really faltered over a sloppy track at Keeneland and when overmatched trying graded stakes company at Gulfstream.

It’s hard to not see Thoughtless taking command midstretch.

In the Paul Bunyan, where the winner takes home the “most dangerous trophy in racing” – the Bunyan Axe – Robertson has the odds on favorite Wynn Time.  Bred and owned by John Metz and ridden by Quincy Hamilton, Wynn Time is graded stakes placed with a 3rd last out in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Stakes at Oaklawn finishing behind the accomplished Whitmore for the second race in a row.  Wynn Time also notched consecutive triple digit Beyer Speed Figures, which towers over the rest of the field.

The two stakes races will be run as the second and third races of the afternoon card ahead of a full day of graded stakes out of Churchill Downs.

First race post is 12:45 PM.