Canterbury Park to offer upfront incentives to trainers in effort to boost field size

Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., will pay trainers upfront money prior to its meet under a novel incentive program that seeks to boost field sizes at the track, Canterbury officials announced Wednesday.

The program will pay trainers as much as $1,500 per horse that is shipped in to Canterbury for the start of its four-month, 54-day meet on May 18. Under the program, horses will earn money toward paying off the upfront money for each start made during the meet, with a total of four starts needed to avoid paying back a portion of the incentive at the end of the meet on Sept. 28.

“Our message to horsemen this year is that the incentive is yours, as long as you participate,” said Amber Carlisle, the track’s racing operations manager.

Last year during a 53-day meet, the average field size at Canterbury was 6.49 horses per race, down significantly from the average field size of 7.31 during the 2022 meet. That drop in field size contributed to a nearly one-third decline in average handle per race. Field size is a significant factor in wagering.

The program is designed to provide higher incentives to trainers who ship in from more distant locales. Canterbury has designated a “green zone” comprising states along the West Coast, southern border, Florida, and the mid-Atlantic that makes the horses eligible for the $1,500 incentive payment. Horses shipping from states in a ring surrounding Minnesota will be eligible for a $500 payment, while horses from states surrounding that ring will be eligible for a $1,000 payment.

For each start made at the meet, an eligible horse will have one-fourth of the incentive payment deducted from the total. For example, a horse shipped in from Oklahoma – part of the $1,000 geographic ring – will have $250 deducted from the amount owed for each start the horse makes. Any portion that is not earned back will have to be returned to Canterbury at the end of the meet.

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The program is capped at 20 “open-bred” horses and 10 Minnesota-bred horses for each trainer. Only horses 3 years old or older will be eligible to receive the incentives.

Trainers will be required to fill out an application form to determine eligibility. That application will be reviewed by Canterbury Park personnel for approval.

According to Carlisle, trainers will have their incentive payments deposited in their horsemen’s account at the time they arrive on the grounds. Trainers will be free to withdraw the money after the initial deposit is made to their account, but, under the conditions of the program, trainers will have to provide the foal papers and digital certificates from the eligible horses to the track as “collateral” to participate in the program.

Horses are flesh and blood, and it is not possible to predict whether a horse will suffer a training setback or an injury or be claimed from a race during a four-month meet. Carlisle said that the track has worked through various scenarios so that trainers are able to mitigate against unforeseen circumstances.

For example, if a horse is claimed or injured, trainers will be able to “substitute” another horse in the barn for the horse that is no longer participating or has been claimed, Carlisle said. In addition, trainers who have multiple horses participating in the program will be able to use their “average starts” for their eligible horses to determine whether the full incentive payment was earned, according to Carlisle.

If a trainer has five horses in the program, and two make two starts, one makes three starts, another makes five starts, and another makes eight starts, the total starts would be 20 and the average starts would be four. Under that scenario, the trainer will have earned the incentive for each horse, Carlisle said.

“It’s nearly a 4 1/2-month meet, so all we’re asking is one start a month,” Carlisle said. “We think that’s reasonable.”

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