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 […]
Dissecting the “Blog Bounce”
There is a phenomenon in the pressbox known as the blog bounce, a mysterious, eerie force that accompanies articles written about specific riders, trainers or the like. In many cases, a horse or rider, recently boosted by a bounce from the blog in the form of a complete article, profile or even a mere mention, […]
Video: The Grooms
Canterbury’s backside is home to roughly 1,500 horses. Behind each of these horses is a dedicated team that includes owners, trainers, vets, farriers and – maybe most importantly – grooms. Grooms are specifically assigned to a given number of horses – typically 5-6 – and they are their designated caregiver. Typically grooms are responsible for […]
PA’s Big Day
There is something eerily suggestive about a man being fired out of a cannon on Memorial Day, but that is the featured act of Monday’s sideline activities. All in all, the idea is not any stranger than other events that have unfolded over the weekend. On Saturday’s card, for example, track announcer Paul Allen, who began […]
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 […]
16,071 Witness Extreme Race Day! (W/Video)
Extreme day had something for everyone on Saturday, and everyone totaled 16,071 patrons on hand to watch Red Hot Zoomer win one of the shortest races in track history, Wild Jacob repeat as John Bullit champion, the mayor of Shakopee win another race, this time on a camel, and a one-eyed horse steal the HBPA […]
Troubled Trip – Thepointman
Last thursday night saw a lot of trouble: The first Buck Night of the year, the turf racing and Thepointman – were all affected by the rain. In the third event, a rather inexperienced lineup took to the racetrack with two Tony Rengstorf entries. Lambda Nu and Thepointman appear to have worked together for a […]
Week 1 in Review (Stats & Trends)
If you were able to attend the races on Friday and Saturday, you saw a series of front running winners over a fast track which is not unusual early in the meet. After the storms moved through on Saturday night, the track played a bit more evenly on Sunday as off-the-pace runners held their own. […]
