HILGERS, STEVENS HOOK UP ONE LAST TIME
BY JIM WELLS What does a Hall of Fame breeder do when he wants the best available to ride his horse? He calls a Hall of Fame rider. Jeff Hilger picked up his phone a couple of weeks ago and contacted Scott Stevens, hoping the veteran rider was available for Sunday’s Festival of Champions. Hilger, […]
Canterbury Hosts 24th Minnesota Festival of Champions Sunday
The annual Minnesota Festival of Champions, a day restricted to the best racehorses bred in the state, will be held for the 24th time Sunday at Canterbury Park. The first of 11 races is scheduled to begin at 12:45 p.m.at the Shakopee, Minn. racetrack. A total of 94 horses have been entered to compete for […]
Racehorse Owner: Curt Sampson
By Katie Merritt Curtis Sampson was born and raised in Hector, Minnesota and has been attending the races at Canterbury since it first opened as Canterbury Downs. In 1994, after the track had been closed for two years, Sampson, his son Randy and Dale Schenian purchased the facility and brought live racing back to Shakopee […]
CHAMPIONS CROWNED ON FESTIVAL DAY
Fireman Oscar BY JIM WELLS Sunny skies, cool breezes and a surprise or two provided the perfect conditions for the annual Minnesota Festival of Champions, a card designed exclusively for Minnesota-bred horses Sunday. The card included a bit of everything, including what might not have been a race for the ages, but […]
Sunday's Festival of Champions Evokes Memories of 1992.
BY JIM WELLS Turn back the pages of your calendar, day by day, week by week, month by month until you come to a gorgeous autumn afternoon in 1992. There it is, right there, September 12. Okay, now, pause right here. The sun is shining, a television crew is at Canterbury Downs. A crowd is […]
STEVENS RIGHT AT HOME IN SHAKOPEE
BY JIM WELLS The old saw that there’s no place like home might have an entirely different meaning to Scott Stevens. Particularly after the Idaho Cup races at Sandy Downs this summer. Stevens won all three of the races in which he had mounts, something he can certainly recall with pleasure, if not the conditions […]
HALL OF FAMERS UNITE FOR FESTIVAL WIN
BY JIM WELLS People sitting nearby couldn’t make out the words, but when the rider change for Rockin the Bleu’s was announced, the nature of the fellow’s exclamation was unmistakable. He was clearly pleased, or as he later confirmed: “I was really excited.” That reaction by Jeff Hilger was to an announcement that Hall of […]
FESTIVAL EVOKES MEMORIES, RECENT AND PAST
It’s Truly Obvious by JIM WELLS Ask anyone for his or her favorite memory from the Festival of Champions and you will get any number of responses. For one person the day is remindful of a favorite horse, for another of a specific race, for still another of a certain year and for others […]
RAKE’N IT IN ON FESTIVAL DAY
If you weren’t there, you missed what arguably was the best card of the summer, taking into account the hoopla, number of thrilling finishes for big money and general pulse rate of the participants. It was not unlike a family reunion, uniting as it did folks from the far reaches of the state and in […]
FESTIVAL DAY MAKES LASTING MEMORIES FOR SOME
Festival Day. It means different things to different people, has enduring memories for some, forgettable ones for others. Correctly put, it is the Minnesota Festival of Champions, a day on which Minnesota owners and breeders trot out their best to determine how they stand up to others bred here, in the land of 10,000 Lakes. […]