Packer Sweeps QH Stakes Races
BY JIM WELLS The nicknames are meant for a single day at most and they are intended to describe an accomplishment or feat that is meaningful merely for a short period of time. So, Berkley Packer was being referred to on Friday night as Daily Double, or Stakes Man, depending on the creativity of some […]
Jerry Olson Started With A Starting Gate
By Rebecca Roush Around 40 years ago, quarter horse owner Jerry Olson came across a set of starting gates that were for sale in his home town of Selby, North Dakota. He convinced six of his friends to help him purchase the gates and used them to race saddle horses in a small field. The […]
QH Stakes Initiate Friday Card
BY JIM WELLS A phone call interrupted Pat Swan while he was busy in the barn Friday afternoon. “Give me five minutes,” he said, “I’m working on a horse’s foot.” He’s been working on some aspect of a horse most of his life, starting with bulls and saddle broncs in high school and college and […]
A Race Is A Race
By Noah Joseph This Saturday, two of the richest races for Minnesota bred thoroughbreds are being run at Canterbury Park. The Minnesota Oaks for fillies, and the Minnesota Derby for colts and geldings, are both being held for the 30th time, both with a record purse of $100,000. These races, restricted to three year old […]
Jason Olmstead Wins Another Training Title
By Rebecca Roush With 21 wins this season, trainer Jason Olmsted certainly knows his way to the winner’s circle. This will be his fourth straight champion quarter horse training title at Canterbury Park. The Olmstead barn is currently filled with 45 horses, but with the quarter horse portion of the meet concluding soon the 39-year-old […]
Tom Pouliot Has A Very Fast Quarter Horse
By Rebecca Roush Growing up on a five-acre hobby farm in Maple Grove, racehorse owner Tom Pouliot had always been around the sport. His parents owned racehorses and others that he would barrel race. They started out racing the horses at “small bush tracks,” at the Anoka County Fairgrounds, and in Lake Elmo and Wadena, […]
Scheckel Knows How To Make A Shekel
BY JIM WELLS One of his trainers sizes it up simply as a numbers game. Or in metaphorical terms, if you shoot a lot of bullets you’re apt to hit the bulls-eye sometimes. There is more to the analysis than that, however, because Thomas J. Scheckel has been a horseman for as long as he […]
The Eighties Get Rained Out
By Jim Wells Friday nights offer a special blend of racing and music and occasionally enhance the evening with a variety of promotional activities. This time nostalgia became part of the mix. It was Eighties Night, a celebration of a decade known for a variety of bands, movies and characters, and employees from various levels […]
Another Retired Racehorse Success Story
Like many retired athletes, racehorses often go on to live very exciting lives. Retired racehorse Purest Form, or as owner Stephanie Neises, an accomplished equine rider and the Compliance Administrator for the Minnesota Racing Commission likes to call him, Avicii, is still a very active horse. Purest Form was foaled in Kentucky in 2009 and […]
Poker Diaries Part 1: John Reading
By Michael Iverson Michael Iverson is a recreational poker player who primarily plays 8/16 and 20/40 Hold’em along with multi-table tournaments at Canterbury Park. He is a contract manager in the legal department at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Michael lives in Stewartville, Minn., with his wife, Andrea and three children Gavin (9), Mackenzie (8) and […]