Canterbury returns with limited live fans, 10 percent pick 5 takeout

Canterbury Park becomes the latest North American racetrack to come back online following the global coronavirus pandemic when it starts a 52-day meeting on Wednesday.

The Shakopee, Minn., track was scheduled to begin racing in early May before COVID-19 slammed into the racing industry and the rest of America. Canterbury managed to open its backstretch May 8 and has attracted a large enough horse population, at least on the Thoroughbred side, to comfortably conduct this abbreviated season, director of racing Andrew Offerman said.

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“I think we’ll be all right,” Offerman said in a telephone interview Sunday.

Canterbury had 1,100 horses in the stables early after about 400 arrivals over the last week. That last influx eased racing officials’ concerns over attracting the critical mass required to make the meet run. Racing also is resuming or has resumed at several other Midwest venues and the competition for horses is especially fierce. Canterbury races three days a week until the end of this month before going to four-day race weeks for the rest of the season, and entries were strong for the cards Wednesday and Thursday. Purses have dropped compared to 2019 but remain high enough to hold ample appeal for the typical participants at this Twin Cities-area racetrack.

While Offerman said the Thoroughbred population is a couple hundred head higher than before the opening of the 2019 meet, Quarter Horses have been slow to return to Canterbury, which runs a mixed meet. Two or three Quarter Horse races typically have been carded at the start of racing programs; the first two programs this year have one Quarter Horse race each, situated after the Thoroughbred contests.

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Canterbury on Friday got permission from state and local health officials to host 250 fans per card in addition to the 250 licensed personnel already approved to attend racing. The latter group will be socially distanced on the first floor while spectators – Canterbury’s highest-handle and most-loyal customers – will be scattered throughout the third level.

The race meet, which runs through Sept. 16, starts with a Monday-through-Thursday schedule, post time 4:30 each day. Canterbury is the rare North American racing venue that does as well with ontrack betting as out-of-state simulcast bettors and has altered its schedule and focused accordingly. The track announced last week it was offering a daily 50-cent pick five on the last five races each card with an extremely bettor-friendly 10 percent takeout.

Offerman said that Canterbury would consider changing the days it races if permitted to begin hosting larger crowds. “For right now, our business model has shifted,” he said.

What probably hasn’t shifted is the top of the trainer standings, which in recent seasons has featured duels between Mac Robertson and Robertino Diodoro, both of whom are in steady action during the Wednesday and Thursday programs. Trainer Karl Broberg has more stalls this year than last, while trainer Federico Villafranco has taken stalls this season mainly for horses owned by Danny Caldwell.

A pared-down stakes schedule includes nine $100,000 stakes, eight of which are Minnesota-bred restricted. The only open six-figure stakes during the meet is the Mystic Lake Derby for 3-year-old grass horses on July 15.