2013 Champions Determined
The skies were forbidding and dark much of the day, but the finish was one of the most colorful in Canterbury Park history as the 2013 race meet came to a stirring conclusion. The weather was really not a factor until light rain began falling midway through the card. It was somewhat heavier by the […]
Relays & Riding Title Drama
The spectacle is every bit as good the second time around, although a miscue before the first heat of Friday night’s Indian relay racing shortened the field to three teams. A horse reared up while his rider attempted to mount and then disappeared into the gloaming of the overhead lights with an outrider in hot […]
Indian Relays Impress
This much is clear if you’ve ever ridden a horse. You probably can’t ride one, dismount one and literally jump on another with the nimbleness of a Blackfoot, a Sioux, a Sho-Ban or a Crow. Even these daredevils frequently overshoot their intended targets and wind up on the other side of a moving, rearing or […]
Video: Get in the Game
The season’s final episode of Canterbury Spotlight goes behind the scenes to look at racehorse ownership and racehorse breeding. The people featured in this episode are a small portion of a group that really makes racing at Canterbury special. These individuals drive the state’s racing industry by training, raising and breeding many of the horses […]
Indian Relay Racing on Tap
Outside, over 150 horses grazed under the watchful eye of White Man’s Dog… It seemed odd that two sleeps ago these horses were content to belong to the Crow. Now they were Pikuni (Blackfeet) horses and seemed equally content. -FOOLS CROW BY JAMES WELCH By some accounts, the first sport in the American West was […]
Hermann Calls History
History, they say, is made one minute at a time, one day at a time, over the course of time. Angela Hermann, Canterbury Park’s own, presented a new take on an old expression Saturday afternoon, a new look at the entire concept. Ms. Hermann carried herself and Canterbury Park – married as they are in […]
Hermann to Make History
Racing fans know her as the vivacious woman in the paddock, dispensing information with the rapid-fire delivery of a Gatling gun. She can overwhelm the cerebral senses with a volley of facts and details that roll off her tongue with the authority and understanding of someone who knows her stuff inside and out. Right or […]
Come Summer, Simply the Best
He was good enough to beat a future national sprint champion, good enough to win all four of his races that summer at the new racetrack in Shakopee. And he was good enough to become the first Horse of the Year in Minnesota Racing history. He was Come Summer. A stunning dark colt with royalty […]
13,011 Enjoy Wiener Dogs
On a day when Minnesotans were still coming to terms with the loss of Justin Morneau, news came about the death of former heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison, that Diana Nyad had at long last accomplished her life-long dream, and that Oscar would indeed defend his title. Oscar? Call him by his appropriate appellation, Dachshund, or […]
2013 Festival Records & Repeats
The Festival of Champions has always been, from Day One, one of the best days of the race meet in Shakopee. Crowds, enthusiasm and competitive races are the order of the occasion. The Festival annually is one of the grandest days of the summer, including Sunday’s rendition that drew a crowd of 15,023 and record-setting off-track […]