Sunday marks the return of a race that has not been held at Canterbury Park in four years: the Cash Caravan Stakes. The Cash Caravan is restricted to Minnesota-breds, three-year-olds and up, running at the classic distance of 440 yards.
Cash Caravan’s racing career spanned three years; the Welika Cash gelding earned over $80,000 in his 38 lifetime starts and his victories here included the first running of the Minnesota Stallion Breeders’ QH Futurity in 1986 and the 1987 Canterbury Park Quarter Horse Derby. Cash (pictured above) was bred by the late Hall of Fame quarter horse trainer Bob Morehouse, though the horse was retired years before he could have had the opportunity to run in the stakes race named in his breeder’s honor. Cash Caravan himself was the first horse to enter the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame.
Sunday, August 12th: The Cash Caravan Stakes, $19,000, 440 yards
Leading Trainer: Asher Murray (3), Ed Ross Hardy (3)
Leading Jockey: Kym Espy (4)
Record Purse: $25,000, won by Stone Cold Roller in 2007
When the race was last contested in 2008, it was won by Sociabull, a four-year-old gelding trained by Jerry Livingston, ridden by Ry Eikleberry and owned by James Olson. Sociabull made his mark at Canterbury early in his career when he won the $20,000 Minnesota Quarter Horse Futurity as a two-year-old in August of 2006. Sociabull went on to race at Sunland Park, SunRay Park and Ruidoso Downs to wrap up his 27-8-4-1 career.
In 2007, Stone Cold Roller won the Cash Caravan with some familiar connections: owned by Robert and Julie Peterson, the three-year-old gelding was trained by Ed Ross Hardy and ridden by Nik Goodwin, a preview of what would become a particularly profitable trainer/jockey combination in the years to follow. Stone Cold Roller defeated post-time favorite and 2007 Bob Morehouse Memorial Stakes winner First Class Smarty. Sociabull finished fifth in the 2007 race; Stone Cold Roller would run third behind him the following year. Stone Cold Roller stamped his equine passport at over ten tracks in his five-year career, ending with a 37-8-9-4 record and earning over $100,000.
No horse’s record could compete with that of Cracklin Cash in this race, however. James Murray’s gelding won the race three consecutive years, from 2000 to 2002. In 2000 he also won the Minnesota Quarter Horse Derby, and as a two-year-old in 1999 he won both the Minnesota Quarter Horse Futurity and North Central Quarter Horse Racing Association Futurity.
The last time the Cash Caravan was run, some of the horses in this field hadn’t been born yet, including #3 Western Fun (4-1), a three-year-old Tres Seis filly from the Ed Hardy Barn, owned and bred by Robert and Julie Peterson and ridden by Nik Goodwin, who has hit the board in 41 of his 50 quarter horse starts this year. Western Fun is attempting 440 yards for the first time, but the distance shouldn’t be a problem given her mare’s thoroughbred bloodlines. The filly only has two wins in her 13 lifetime starts, neither of which was at Canterbury, but she runs almost exclusively in stakes and trials and has more back-class than many in this field. Her last two efforts earned her second place finishes, each against older horses.
#5 Streak N Hot (3-1) will go up against older horses for the first time; the Hotdoggin colt trained by Dale Hagland is 3 for 11 lifetime and is rarely out of the money at Canterbury. He has yet to match the spectacular form he displayed as a two-year-old, but for the first time this year will be entering a race in the absence of Painted Lies or Huckleberry Mojito, who have each outrun him twice in his four starts this year.
Morning line favorite #4 Six It Up (5-2) returns for yet another stakes appearance. The five-year-old Tres Seis mare has not won a race since June of 2011, but is also the only horse to have run against a national racing champion when she finished third behind Spit Curl Diva in last year’s Grade 3 Keokuk at Prairie Meadows. Whether she can avenge her recent losses to horses in this field remains to be seen, but never leave trainer Amber Blair out of consideration when handicapping quarter horse stakes.
Vic Hanson has trained several upset winners this year and has the perfect opportunity to take this race as well with #1 Cs Arc Light (7-2), a four-year-old colt out by the First Down Dash sire A Regal Choice. Cs Arc Light has come into perfect form late in the meet, having won his last two starts by closing late in the race. His latest victory was the Bob Morehouse Memorial Stakes, in which he defeated Western Fun and Six It Up. Cs Arc Light has not attempted this distance, but in recent races has shown that he finds his stride late in the race, and he may use the extra yards to only pull further away from his competition.
There may not be a horse in this field that has the same kind of cult following as Cash Caravan did in the height of his career, but this race could become a key performance for another talented MN-bred to join him one day in the Hall of Fame.
Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.
This blog was written by AQHA Q-Racing Ace Jen Perkins. Jen travels to tracks across the country to educate fans about handicapping and Quarter Horse racing, and shares her perspective on Canterbury Quarter Horse racing as well as insider information on America’s fastest athletes.
