Tuesday night at Canterbury Park belonged to the track’s leading quarter horse trainer Jason Olmstead as he swept the co-featured Skip Zimmerman Memorial Stakes and the North Star State Futurity. Juice Is Loose won the $28,500 Skip Zimmerman by one-half length under Edwin Escobedo for owners Tom Maher and Stephen Williams, covering 350 yards in 17.662 seconds. Juice Is Loose paid $5.60 as the wagering favorite and provided Olmstead with his first Zimmerman win. Heza Blues Man was second and Justafamilytradition was third.
Juice is Loose broke from the inside post in the seven-horse field. “I heard the inside was a little heavy so I tried to move him a little bit to the outside and get him going and he just took off halfway down the stretch,” Escobedo said.
Olmstead next won the $28,000 North Star State Futurity with Minnesota-bred 2-year-old Relentless Courage who was ridden by Luis Valenzuela for owners Paul Luedemann and once again Maher, a top owner in the history of quarter horse racing at Canterbury. The favorite paid $4.20. Final time for the 300 yards was 15.756 seconds. Olmstead also trained second-place finisher Relentless Babe. Jjs Full Moon was third.
Relentless Courage has now won three consecutive starts after a fourth-place finish in his debut. Both he and Relentless Babe could be headed to a rematch in the $50,000 Minnesota Futurity on Sept. 8.
It took Luedemann some time to realize how talented this gelding might be. “It was his second race he won and we were kind of surprised,” Luedemann said. “He was kind of an underdog at the barn in the beginning. Then he came back and won his second race and then we knew he was the real deal. And now tonight I guess he is.”