Sushi Man has emerged as one of the most exciting runners at the Canterbury Park meet and on Saturday night he will attempt to win his third straight race in the $75,000 Minnesota Derby.
“Hopefully, we can keep the party going,” trainer Coty Rosin said.
Sushi Man will be moving back to dirt for the race run over one mile and 70 yards. It is for Minnesota-breds, and that’s one of the reasons he’s switching surfaces off back-to-back turf wins that have come by a combined margin of 16 1/2 lengths. Sushi Man won the Canterbury Derby over open company in his last start June 28.
“He wouldn’t have been going back on the dirt would it not have been for the breeds,” Rosin said. “And the $75,000 [purse] is a lot of money, and we don’t have to ship.”
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Sushi Man’s best finish on dirt came three starts ago, when he was second in a maiden special weight won by a next-out stakes winner. The one-mile race was at Prairie Meadows and one start later Sushi Man moved to turf and won his maiden at Canterbury.
“Obviously, dirt is a question mark,” Rosin said. “You know, he’s run well on the dirt and he’s worked exceptionally well leading up to the race. I think he’s a better turf horse. He just gets over it so well. But I think he’s going to handle [dirt] just fine. Had he not run on it before, it would be a huge question mark.”
Sushi Man, part of a field of eight, worked five furlongs in a bullet 59.20 seconds on July 26.
Rosin said he’s seen Sushi Man develop over the course of the meet at Canterbury.
“He’s a much different individual,” he said. “He’s very confident in himself. He seems to be a lot more focused on his job, and I think he’s really gone the right way mentally.
“He’s a big horse, pretty long-legged, and he’s really growing into himself. He’s a beautiful horse. He’s been training better than he was two months ago. He always worked well, and he always trained well, but he trains better and he’s worked better. I would definitely say he’s gotten better with each and every race and hopefully that continues.”
Harry Hernandez has the mount on Sushi Man from post 7 for One Bid Stable.
“He’s got a very high cruising speed,” Rosin said. “He can go fast and he can really carry his speed.”
Towner Too also could be prominent off a wire-to-wire win in an allowance sprint at Canterbury.
The $75,000 Minnesota Oaks field of seven includes the Rosin-trained Vintage Port. She is moving back to dirt after winning a maiden special weight on turf in her two-turn debut June 8.
“I was really disappointed that she didn’t win last year because she trained better than most 2-year-olds,” Rosin said. “She’s got a lovely way of going. I was really disappointed and quite frankly, shocked, she didn’t win. Then I got to looking and said, ‘Well, she really just doesn’t like to be hustled.’ And she always looked like a two-turn horse, got a beautiful long stride, and so we debuted her on the turf, not thinking she was a turf horse but more so for the two turns and she won, run a very brave race.”
Vintage Port will start from post 5.
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