Hafner Wraps Up 2021 Canterbury Handicapper of the Year
Ron Hafner told himself the morning of December 18 that he was going to win that day’s NHC Last Chance Qualifier Contest in the Canterbury Racebook. Premonition, coincidence, luck; call it what you will, but it happened. Hafner finished first, won a trip to the January $3 million National Horseplayers Championship in Las Vegas, and […]
Canterbury Park 2022 Racing Dates Receive Minnesota Racing Commission Approval
65-day Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meet to run May 18 through Sept. 17 Canterbury Park’s request for a 65-day 2022 thoroughbred and quarter horse racing season, Wednesday, May 18 through Saturday, Sept. 17, was unanimously approved Thursday by the Minnesota Racing Commission. The Shakopee, Minn. racetrack will conduct a Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday schedule with […]
Canterbury Park Racing Season Closes With Wagering and Purse Records
65-day meet produces $90.8 million in total handle; record $15.5 million in purses Canterbury Park’s live horse racing season came to a conclusion Thursday night, producing record wagering figures while returning $15,558,701 in purses, the most ever in a single meet, to horse owners, jockeys and trainers, fueling an industry that supports thousands of jobs […]
That’s The Way It Is
By Noah Joseph As the temperatures drop and the days get shorter, another Canterbury Park racing season comes to a close. It’s a bittersweet time for sure, as nobody wants the season to end, but it was a great season. After a 2020 season that saw very limited crowds due to the pandemic, 2021 attracted […]
Successful Canterbury Racing Season Concludes This Week
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday programs feature 326 horses in 34 races Canterbury Park’s 65-day racing season comes to an end with 5 p.m. programs Tuesday and Wednesday and a 4 p.m., 13-race program Thursday. General admission will be free the final three days as part of fan appreciation week to cap a season that began with […]
Plana Dance: Out Of This World
By Noah Joseph When horse racing returned to Minnesota in 1995, many faces from the Canterbury Downs days returned to Shakopee. Two of those people were Marlene Colvin and her husband, the late Robert Colvin, who was nicknamed Bun. They had made history in their own right in 1985, as their Sultan’s Gold was third […]
Love the Nest Impressive in $100k Northern Lights Futurity
Jockey Eikleberry wins twice on MN Festival of Champions Night Love the Nest, a 2-year-old colt trained by Joel Berndt and owned by Robert Lothenbach, powered to an impressive 7 1/4 length victory in Wednesday’s Northern Lights Futurity, one of six $100,000 statebred thoroughbred stakes on Minnesota Festival of Champions Night at Canterbury Park. Love […]
The Important Origin of The Festival
Wednesday is the 28th Minnesota Festival of Champions, a night we celebrate the best of the statebred racehorses. Hall of Fame newspaper reporter Jim Wells died in 2019, but his stories remain for us to enjoy. Here is a recounting written by Jim many years ago, detailing the 1992 origins of the Festival. by Jim […]
State’s Best Horses Race Wednesday in MN Festival of Champions
12-race program with $850k in purses begins at 4:10 p.m. Minnesota’s top thoroughbreds and quarter horses will race Wednesday at Canterbury Park in the 28th Minnesota Festival of Champions. The 12-race card, restricted to horses bred in the state, includes six $100,000 stakes and will pay a total of $852,450 in purses. First post is […]
Asher Murray Always Had Fast Horses
Much of the history of Minnesota racing, pre-dating the Canterbury facility, resides in the minds of those that participated. There are the rare programs from a meet conducted at the Anoka Fairgrounds in the ’70s or a faded winners’ circle photo, but the majority of the history is of the spoken variety. And that history […]
