Canterbury puts restrictions on jockey colony

Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., will close off its jockey colony to outside riders beginning with Wednesday’s card, the track announced Wednesday, and will consolidate its Quarter Horse racing schedule to three live racing dates, under measures it has adopted to mitigate the risk of coronavirus spreading at the track.

Starting tonight, any jockey who is not already based on the grounds of Canterbury will need to spend 14 days in quarantine and test negative for coronavirus before being allowed on the grounds, Canterbury said. The policy is identical or similar to travel restrictions being rapidly applied to jockey colonies across the United States in the wake of a spate of coronavirus positives among riders in the past week.

With tracks in New York, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, and Louisiana all adopting similar lockdowns, the U.S. racing industry is rapidly approaching a critical mass of tracks that will likely lead to few riders leaving their home tracks over the short term. Several of the jockeys who tested positive in the last week rode at multiple tracks over short periods of time just prior to testing positive, leading to concerns that the virus may already be rapidly spreading.

Canterbury Park also is moving all of its Quarter Horse races to three race dates – July 28, Aug. 11, and Aug. 25 – in order to allow Quarter Horse riders to quarantine separately from its Thoroughbred riders. The track said that many of its Quarter Horse riders regularly travel back and forth between Canterbury and Prairie Meadows in Iowa because both tracks card limited Quarter Horse races on most of their racing programs. All Quarter Horse riders will be required to test negative for coronavirus prior to being allowed on the grounds.

Canterbury said that other Quarter Horse-only cards may be added in the future. The track is scheduled to race live through Sept. 16.