Betting, field sizes drop at Canterbury, while attendance ticks up
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Field size at the recently completed Canterbury Park meet in Shakopee, Minn., dropped nearly 10 percent, while betting on the track's races followed suit, with total wagering down 12.7 percent during the 50-day meet, according to an analysis by Daily Racing Form.
Average field size for the track’s Thoroughbred races dropped from 7.40 horses per race during last year’s 54-day meet to 6.75 horses this year. With 39 fewer Thoroughbred races held this year, average handle per race dropped 3.2 percent, according to the analysis.
The average purse dropped 16.3 percent, from $23,919 last year to $20,015 this year. Total purses were down 12.7 percent to $7.23 million.
Canterbury Park has struggled since an agreement with a nearby Indian tribe providing purse and operational subsidies expired in 2023, leading to purse cuts and instability. In the year prior to the agreement expiring, Canterbury ran 529 Thoroughbred races over 64 days, with total purses of $13.2 million.
Since the expiration, Canterbury Park has sought help from the legislature for expanded gambling or direct subsidies, but those efforts have been unsuccessful so far. The previous agreement prohibited the track from seeking legislative approval for additional gambling that would have provided competition to the tribe’s casino.
“We will continue to work with the state legislature during the upcoming session to address purses,” said Canterbury’s general manager, John Groen, in a statement. “There are a number of commonsense solutions that would benefit horse racing as well as the tribes and charities, and we remain committed to working cooperatively with all interested parties to make Minnesota’s racing the premier racing circuit in the upper Midwest.”
The meet was originally scheduled to run 53 days, but two cards were canceled outright and two were called off mid-card due to weather, which included high heat indexes and thunderstorms. One card was added in July to make up for the earlier cancellations. After thunderstorms led to the loss of four races on the last Thursday of the meet, four races were added to the closing-day card on Saturday night.
In a release, Canterbury said that average daily attendance increased 4 percent to 5,105 patrons a day, while the average ontrack wagering “remained consistent with the prior season.”
Harry Hernandez took the rider’s title with 70 wins, while Jack Silva Jr. won the trainer’s title with 34 victories. Novogratz Racing Stables led all owners with 13 wins.
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