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 […]
Mr. Jagermeister Ready For $100k Crocrock Sprint Championship
He won the premier Minnesota-bred sprint race in 2019 as the 2 to 5 favorite, drawing off to win by more than five lengths. Now Mr. Jagermeister is again entered in the Crocrock Minnesota Sprint Championship, one of six $100,000 statebred stakes that make up Wednesday’s Minnesota Festival of Champions. Mr. Jagermeister missed the race […]
Stakes in Festival of Champions Honor Four Exceptional MN-Breds
by Dave Valento Canterbury Park’s Festival of Champions has always been one of the most popular racing days on the calendar at the Shakopee oval. It brings together the top Minnesota-breds in highly anticipated match-ups at various surfaces and distances. The 2021 version is scheduled for Wednesday, September 8th. Four of the stakes races on […]
Minnesota Festival of Champions
by Jim Wells [Canterbury Park Hall of Famer and historian Jim Wells passed away last fall. He wrote countless stories about racing for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and later for CanterburyLive. This story by Jim, published a decade ago, recounts the efforts of those that were determined to keep horse racing alive in Minnesota.] […]
Ray’s Angel Earns A Place In The Stakes
This spring Cameron Mahlum, managing partner for North Star Stable, breeders and owners of Ray’s Angel, did not see their homebred 5-year-old by the sire Kela as an entrant in Wednesday’s $100,000 Crocrock Minnesota Sprint Championship, one of eight stakes in the annual Minnesota Festival of Champions. “No. Not when you’re in the same foal […]
27th Minnesota Festival Of Champions Wednesday At Canterbury Park
Richest night of the meet with $737,600 in stakes purses begins at 4:10 p.m. What began in 1992 as a show of strength and final act of defiance, the Minnesota Festival of Champions, with its 27th running Wednesday evening, remains a staple on the Canterbury Park schedule and a continuing reminder that horse racing in […]
Festival A Family Affair
By Jim Wells The Festival of Champions has a family air about it, and always has. After all, it is about Minnesota horses, the farms they represent and the people who breed, own and train them. In many respects is has become the perfect sidekick to the Minnesota State Fair. The 26th running of the […]
Minnesota Festival of Champions
The 26th Minnesota Festival of Champions takes place tomorrow at Canterbury Park. The special event debuted in 1992 to pay tribute to the Minnesota horse breeding industry, and acts as the unofficial celebration of the Canterbury Park live racing season. “Festival day is like the Championship game of the season,” said trainer Bernell Rhone, winner […]
Bell Still the Leading Festival Rider
By Jim Wells Nobody has ridden more Festival of Champions winners than Derek Bell, the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame rider who has been to the winner’s circle 24 times on this annual day of tribute to Minnesota horses. That total is six more than Dean Butler and 13 in front of Scott Stevens. Bell […]
26th Minnesota Festival of Champions September 1
The origin of the Minnesota Festival of Champions, which will be celebrated for the 26th time next Sunday, dates back to 1992, the end of the Downs era, the year that owner Ladbroke Corporation lost interest in live racing. Minnesota owners and breeders banded together to send a message to Ladbroke that there was indeed […]
