Canterbury requests 52-day season that would start June 10

Canterbury Park moved toward conducting a 2020 race meet, filing a request for a 52-day season with the Minnesota Racing Commission on Wednesday.

Canterbury applied for an amended racing season that would run June 10 through Sept. 9 with racing Monday through Thursday. The Shakopee, Minnesota track said in a news release that it would work with the commission and the Minnesota Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association – which also has to approve the track’s racing dates request – to establish post times.

Canterbury requested the commission grant the track the latitude to change race days as other venues reopen during late spring and summer. The release said racing would be conducted spectator free or with limited patrons throughout the season.

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Canterbury had been scheduled to open a 65-day season May 15. It reopened its backstretch last week, accepting a large portion of the horses that had been based at Turf Paradise in Arizona. Stock that typically races at Canterbury is shipped north from Turf Paradise, Tampa Bay Downs, and Fonner Park. Some outfits that summer at Canterbury have been racing at Will Rogers Downs.

Indiana Grand, which competes with Canterbury for a similar equine population and like Canterbury runs a mixed Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred meet, announced plans earlier this week to begin racing on June 14. Among other Midwest tracks, Prairie Meadows in Iowa has made no public move toward conducting a 2020 racing season and Arlington outside Chicago hasn’t opened its stables.

Canterbury’s purses are heavily subsidized by the Mystic Lake Casino in Shakopee, which is operated by the Mdewakanton Sioux tribe and has been closed since mid-March. Canterbury’s release didn’t include any information on 2020 purse levels.