Brooks Fields Stakes on Tap
When you walk into Churchill Downs the history of its most famous race is displayed along the upper reaches of the grandstand outside the paddock, one Kentucky Derby winner after another, starting with Aristides in 1875. Thoroughbred racing is empty without its history, without the stories of its great horses, sires and broodmares, jockeys, trainers […]
Jockey Race Tight Early
Lori Keith bounded out of the tunnel leading to the paddock Sunday afternoon and right past the No. 1 spot for her horse, Oughterson. “Hey, Lori, over here,” someone called. “I was distracted. He distracted me,” Keith said, pointing to a nearby interloper while gathering her wits. Keith is as focused as she’s ever been this spring, […]
Opening Night Elicits Excitement
The planets are back in the proper orbits, circling the heavens in their celestial splendor. The stock market will take off like a rocket in the coming days. Peace has come to this little corner of the world. Just like that, horse racing is back on the Minnesota sports and entertainment calendar. Under gray, wet, […]
Canterbury Inside the Numbers
Live racing at Canterbury Park starts Friday, May 17. Optimism is high for the 2013 season with full barns on the backside and a higher purse structure in place. This should be a good formula for larger fields and more competitive racing, which equals better opportunities for large payoffs! Let’s look back at the 2012 […]
Record Crowd of 17,053 Enjoys 2012 Festival
The Festival of Champions began 20 years ago as a rebuke to track management at the time, as a demonstration by horsemen that the Ladbroke Corp.’s marketing strategies and ideas about live racing were wrong. They’ve been proving that nearly every year of live racing since, often most notably on Festival day, but never quite […]
Canterbury Jockeys Make Plans
Some of the trailers are lined up like sentries on the backside, ready to receive their cargo when the meet officially closes on Monday. They have been swept out and lined with fresh straw in anticipation of the awaiting trip, to farms where their cargo will be turned out or to other racetracks where they […]
Wearing Many Hats & Cleaning Many Silks
It’s a wonder that Nate Quinonez doesn’t dream in Technicolor given the kaleidoscope world of hues and paint palate combinations that inhabit his life much of the week. For 2 ½ hours or more before first post each day, and at periods throughout the card, Quinonez is occupied with sorting and cleaning the correct silks […]
The Turf Chute Makes Its Debut
Not many in the sizable crowd of over 7,000 Thursday realized they were witnessing a small bit of Canterbury Park history, a footnote perhaps to much more that has happened since racing debuted in 1985, yet something to remember nonetheless. No one said one day they will bounce a grandchild on a knee and recall […]
Riggs Chases Riding Title
Tanner Riggs left the track late Friday night after a busy, productive evening. He had mounts in seven races and won five of them. Not bad for this 23-year-old kid who had five consecutive winners on a card in June. Two five-baggers in the same meet, at the place he considers his home track. You […]
Canterbury Covered in Pink
The color of choice on Saturday was pink, and anywhere one cared to look the color was represented in various shades. The entire track was in the pink, in fact, from the gate to the gate crew, the valets and most of the employees were in pink tee-shirts, pink hats, pink ties. Some of the outriders […]