07/28/2012 8:03PM

Canterbury Park: Hammers Terror survives inquiry to win Mystic Lake Derby

By Ted Grevelis
Email
Coady Photography
Hammers Terror, with Lori Keith up, wins the $161,250 Mystic Lake Derby.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. –  Hammers Terror had to survive a stewards’ inquiry and an objection from second-place Delegation’s jockey, Jermaine Bridgmohan, to ultimately became the first winner of the $161,250 Mystic Lake Derby in front of 10,127 on Saturday at Canterbury Park.

Hammers Terror took the lead exiting the first turn in the one-mile turf race and never relinquished it.    Delegation, stumbling badly at the start, recovered enough heading into the first turn to take a brief lead before surrendering it to Hammers Terror.  Second most of the way, Delegation ranged up through the far turn, but was never able to get closer than a length to the winner.

About 20 yards from the wire, Hammers Terror veered out across the path of Delegation, causing him to steady.  After reviewing the video of the stretch run, Canterbury Park stewards determined that the interference did not cost Delegation a better placing and let the victory stand.

Trainer Michael Stidham’s assistant, Chris Davis, who saddled Hammers Terror said, “He’s never shied away from a left-handed stick before.  He must have seen something.”

“I was told just to get him to relax, wherever he ended up” winning jockey Lori Keith said.  “This was my biggest race ever.”

Keith got the ride aboard Hammers Terror from a previous connection with owner Terry Hamilton, riding horses for him at Turf Paradise.

“He came out of the mile-and-an-eighth race well,” Davis said.  “He shipped well, very professionally.  This was a good field with a good purse, and with our base in Chicago it was easy to come up for.  Where he ends up next is up to Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Stidham.”

With purses up more than 35 percent since the Mystic Lake/Canterbury Park agreement and expected to double next year, Hamilton sees a reason for racing back in Minnesota after letting his local stable dwindle to a single horse.

“I plan to bring horses back – all types of them,” he said. “This is what it’s all about. This agreement is great.”

Hammers Terror covered the mile in 1:37.18 and paid $9 to win.  Delegation was second, and locally based Take Heart was third.
 

Paul_Tuon More than 1 year ago
Well, let's see if Mr. Sampson steps up to the plate and commits some serious commitment to improve horse racing in the state of Minnesota by increasing the now $150,000 to at least $300,000 next year and eventually in about 3 to 5 years from now increase it to a more reasonable amount of $500,0000. That's will put horse racing in Minnesota in the 21st century mode instead of stucked in the Neanderthal era since his family resurected horse racing in Minnesota more than a decade ago., This is a great agreement that Mr. Sampson put in place and he should gets all the credit in the world for achieving a monumental step. So let's not go back to the stone age era thinking where casino vs horse racing and horse rorse racing vs casino. If the two forces keep going against each other, one or both parties may loose--and loose it BIG time. As for Mr. Sampson and Canterbury, let's use some of the money from the agreement to improve quality of horse racing in Minnesoat. One way of improving the qualify of horse racing in Minnesota is to offer high incentives for horses bred in Minnesota. This could be structured as any horse bred in Minnesota that can win a graded stakes receives, say, $1 million bbnus. Of course Canterbury can't afford to offer $1 million bonus to any Minnesota bred horse, but Canterbury should be able to afford insurance premiums for such guarantee bonuses. In other words, instead of Canterbury shoulders all the risks of paying the bonuses, which can be detrimental to the health of an ongoing Canterbury, Canterbury can purchase insurance against such bonuses and thus alleviates the mass amount of money Canterbury would have to have in order to offer such bonuses. Insurance premiums on such policy is affordable for a small track like Canterbury and I think Canterbury should give it a serious consideration. Of course there are lots of ways of improving the quality of horse racing in Minnesota, but for starter, the Mystic Lake Derby has to increase at least to $300,000 in 2013 and a few years later, increase it to $500,000.