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Canterbury Park Live Racing Season Concludes Friday and Saturday

Purses and handle reach record numbers Canterbury Park’s 2018 live racing season concludes with 13 races Friday and 14 on Saturday. In all, 318 horses have been entered for the final two days where more than $660,000 in purses will be awarded, bringing total purse disbursement during the 70-day season to record heights of more […]

2013 Meet Closes with Significant Increases

Canterbury Park’s 69-day racing season, the longest since 2006, concluded on September 14 with gains in average handle and attendance. Off-track wagering, dollars bet on Canterbury races at other tracks and through internet sites, increased by 46.7 percent while average daily on-track wagering was up 4.8 percent. Average daily attendance was 6,656, a Canterbury Park […]

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 […]

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 […]

A Slight Canadian Detour

The last time Jake Barton spent any time in Shakopee, the racetrack was called Canterbury Downs and he was called every other hour by an agent in Canada who wanted him there. Long story short. Barton left Shakopee for a weekend trip to Assiniboia Downs, wound up falling in love, getting married and now, 24 […]

Sunday Racing Musings

Once the obligations of winning such a race were attended to, once the handshakes, backslaps, hugs and nods of congratulation had been received, the interviews conducted and the rush of adrenaline subsided, there was time for family, close friends and the owners of the horse. Yes, there are duties concomitant with riding the winning horses […]

A Little Less Suspense

She took one look over her shoulder, gave her mount a stout reminder with the stick and cruised home, much the best in the biggest race of the season, the history of Canterbury Park for that matter. Everything unfolded much as it did last season, with one major exception. “No inquiry,” said the woman of […]

Chairman Heads Juvenile

There are two distinguishable features about this precocious two-year-old – his name and his physical appearance. He is stout, muscular and powerful looking. He is Chairman Crooks; and If that sounds familiar, it should. The horse was named for the late Stanley Crooks who died last August, the chairman of the 420-member Mdewakanton Sioux Community and […]