Canterbury Park track report

A benefit dinner that will start a fund-raising drive to build a chapel on the Canterbury Park backstretch area has been rescheduled from Sunday, Aug. 21, to Saturday, Aug. 20. Hall of Fame riders Pat Day and Sandy Hawley will both be on hand to speak, sign autographs, and visit with fans.

Former trainer Steve Erban contributed his services as an architect in designing the proposed 3,000-square-foot chapel, which will be named in honor of the late Dean Kutz, a top rider during Canterbury's early days.

Chaplain Tommy Bartram is spearheading the effort to fund the chapel's construction, and members of the Sampson family, headed by Canterbury Park's chairman, Curtis Sampson, have agreed to enhance fund-raising efforts with a promise to donate matching funds. Tickets for the dinner are $50 and can be purchased at the track or by contacting Larissa Bartram at 612-749-1148.

* There wasn't a dry eye in the winner's circle when Suzy's Lil Listo was led in following the last Thoroughbred race on the card on Sunday.

A number of gate crew members, valets, jockeys, jockey agents, and racing officials assembled to celebrate the victory for the race's namesake in the Rob Burton Classic. Burton, a member of the Canterbury gate crew for the last few years, has spent the season in a hard-fought battle with cancer. The backstretch community of Canterbury Park held a benefit for Burton on Wednesday night.

* In the final race on Sunday's card, apprentice Joe Sharp won his first race, aboard Trevors Easy, in anything but easy fashion in the Minnesota Summer Soiree Stakes for statebred Quarter Horses. Ducking inward through the lane and briefly brushing his stablemate Dans the Man, Trevors Easy was righted in time and survived a seven-minute stewards' inquiry in a race where nearly every starter had some form of trouble.