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 […]
Canchari Wins 5
Jockey races are often of more interest to the people who keep statistics and record the data on such things at racetracks. Riders, for their part, are more interested in staying healthy and collecting a healthy paycheck. But not entirely… The competitive side of any rider is apt to show when a title is on […]
Goebels Honored
The humidity draped over Shakopee Saturday afternoon like a damp garment clinging to every available inch of a person’s torso, making it difficult to breathe, think clearly or drink more than two or three cups of hot coffee at a time. How to describe such a day? The term ‘oppressive’ comes to mind. Or how […]
Races Heat Up
Thursday’s card was the 51st of the meet. So, let’s see now, that means there are 18 racing days remaining in this, the 19th meeting since racing resumed in Shakopee after a two-year-shutdown, under the name Canterbury Park instead of Downs. Naturally, the focus on the leading rider, trainer and owner will draw increased scrutiny […]
Sunday Saratoga Connections
Most of the attention Sunday in the $20,000-added Cash Caravan Stakes was on defending champion Streak N Hot, Bob Morehouse winner Western Fun and a well-rested Naketa, making her first start in 13 months. That’s the fun of a 440-yard quarter horse dash, as Explosive Guns demonstrated with an explosive burst under Jorge Torres, enabling […]
Mystic Lake Derby Day Nears
Go ahead and pick up the champagne, dig out the attire you wore last year for the race, careful to assure everything is the same, not a single accoutrement out-of-place, cross your fingers and don’t say anything that might be construed as a jinx. “My dad’s superstitious,” said Lori Keith. “It will have to be […]
2013 Derby Day Nears
Occasionally she’ll think about the race and the biggest win of her career, the stuff of warm feelings and pleasant thoughts, except for that interminable wait. “It was intense, wasn’t it though,” says Lori Keith. The subject at hand, of course, is the inaugural Mystic Lake Derby first held in 2012 and Keith’s controversial win […]
20,291 Enjoy Extreme Day
You could have looked high and low and not found anything ordinary about the day or its trappings. It was extreme in every sense of the word, from the camels, ostriches and zebras to the crowd itself. Extreme Day on Saturday evoked scenes from the 1980s. The extremely large crowd was a Canterbury Park record […]
Must Be Divine Intervention
It happened to Paul when he was knocked from his horse by a bolt of lightning. The best selling book of all time has numerous other examples of divine intervention, but heretofore none have been documented at Canterbury Park until Thursday night. In fact, three examples were brought forth recently, putting the track itself in line […]
Mister Mardi Gras in Mile
The long awaited rains finally arrived Saturday morning, bringing to mind once more the time-worn admonition – be careful of what you wish for. Horsemen, riders and even track management had hoped for rain to brighten up the yellowing turf course that was hardening day by day the past few weeks. With two premier races […]