Business declines at 2019 Canterbury Park meet

Canterbury Park ended a 66-day mixed-meet racing season Saturday with across-the-board declines in betting handle.

During the 2019 meeting, $40,634,286 was wagered on 634 races, 534 of which were Thoroughbreds. That was a 16 percent decrease from the $48,142,680 bet on 668 races during the 2018 meeting, according to business figures released by Canterbury.

Average daily handle dropped 11.7 percent year over year to $615,671, while average handle per race was off 11 percent to $64,092 and average handle per starter fell to $8,769, a 7.5 percent drop.

Canterbury averaged just 7.31 starters per race this season and only 7.25 per Thoroughbred race. The 161 turf races averaged 8.23 starters. In 2018, Canterbury averaged 7.60 starters per race, 7.58 in all Thoroughbred races, and 8.56 in turf races. Average starters per race in 2017 was 8.05.

Canterbury, however, attributed this year’s declines to an early season “contract dispute between Churchill Downs, Canterbury’s content management company, and Monarch Content Management,” according to a press release.

Canterbury, which prides itself on big crowds, had an average attendance of 6,592, up 1.3 percent over 2018, the track said. Purses averaged a record $228,189 and gross purses were $15,060,492.

Mac Robertson won the training title with 73 winners to 71 for Robertino Diodoro after the two tied with 57 wins last year. Both trainers ran hard for the title, Diodoro winning nine races the last two days of the meet, Robertson eight.

Francisco Arrieta won his first Canterbury jockey’s title by riding 79 winners, five more than Orlando Mojica. Novogratz Racing Stables and Empire Racing Stables tied for leading owner with 32 winners.

► Sassy Seneca, a filly facing males, won the closing-day feature, the $72,750 Shakopee Juvenile, by 4 1/4 lengths over favored Richard Ronald. Sassy Seneca raced along the inside under Dean Butler, was briefly headed by favored Richard Ronald, but shrugged off that challenge in upper stretch and went on to an easy victory. Sassy Seneca, trained by Mac Robertson for Novogratz Racing, is a daughter of Competitive Edge and Jack’s Flame, by Pulpit. Her win Sunday was her second from two starts and followed a blowout maiden score over 4 1/2 furlongs. She clocked six furlongs in 1:10.98 and paid $6.