Long shots prevailed Sunday in Canterbury Park’s richest quarter horse races of the season when 11 to 1 Fortune in a Wagon and 24 to 1 Feature a Runaway finished in a dead heat in the $50,000 Canterbury Park Quarter Horse Derby, and 23 to 1 Eagles Span won the $141,100 Mystic Lake Northlands Futurity.
Eagles Span, one of five in the 10-horse Northlands field trained by Jason Olmstead, was ridden by Berkley Packer and is owned by Tom and Bill Maher. The 2-year-old colt was the seventh fastest qualifier from the trials held June 14. He held off odds-on favorite and stable mate Gone All In by a head in 18.155 seconds for 350 yards.
“He gutted it out and he got there,” Olmstead said. “I don’t think he wanted to go much further. The filly [Gone All In] was coming.”
The 28th running of the Northlands Futurity offered a record purse. Eagles Span, who broke from the inside post, paid $48.80 to win. Streakin Wagon finished third.
“He came through. He’s just a gutty horse. He’s real strong.” Tom Maher said. “He can handle the one hole.”
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The Canterbury Park Derby resulted in a dead heat for the first in its 28 editions. Fortune in a Wagon and Feature a Runaway broke from the two outside posts and outfinished favored Bp Cartels Policy, the eventual fourth-place finisher, and Honeymoon Candy who was third, winning by a 1 and 1/4 lengths in 20.500 seconds for 350 yards.
Fortune in a Wagon, ridden by Cody Smith, trained by Stacy Charette-Hill and owned by Terry and Mary Louise Pursel, paid $13.20 to win. Feature a Runaway, $25.00 to win, is trained by Edward Ross Hardy, owned by Reliance Ranches, and was ridden by David Pinon.
Feature a Runaway was the slowest of the ten qualifiers from the trials and entered the derby as a maiden. Following two scratches, eight went to post.
“I thought about scratching him and finding a maiden race,” Hardy said. “But I remembered my clients once won the All-American Derby with the tenth fastest qualifier. It turned out well today.”
