Canterbury starts meet with $210,000 a day in purses
Canterbury Park opens a 65-day race meeting Tuesday under far more normal circumstances than the Minnesota track’s 2020 season. COVID-19 delayed and shortened Canterbury’s meeting last year; this marks a return to business as usual, for the most part.
Canterbury usually opens its meet on Kentucky Derby weekend, but pushed back the start date because Oaklawn Park and Tampa Bay Downs raced through the first weekend in May this year, and Canterbury hosts horsemen that winter at both venues. Canterbury, following a national trend among mid- and lower-tier venues, has adopted a weekday schedule to avoid competing with major tracks for weekend eyes and dollars. Race weeks to start the meet are Tuesday through Thursday, first post 5 p.m. Central, with Sunday afternoon cards also on the schedule from May 30 through Sept. 16.
Canterbury leans heavily toward Thoroughbreds but does include Quarter Horse races. In the past, those races were run at the beginning of most cards, but this season they’ll be clustered on Tuesday and Wednesday programs, according to director of racing Andrew Offerman. Running those days avoids Quarter Horse cards at Prairie Meadows in Iowa, leaving sufficient horses and jockeys – or so the hope goes – to fill races at both venues.
Canterbury operates a card room that reopened in mid-January and has done good business. Racing revenue derived from that source as well as “prudent purse management during 2020,” Offerman said, has average daily overnight purses set at a healthy $210,000 this season.
Offerman said roughly 1,100 horses occupied the stable area as of Thursday, with 1,500 expected when allotted stalls are filled. With uncertain times in New Mexico, several Canterbury newcomers, both trainers and jockeys, are summering in Minnesota. Trainer Dick Capelluci has 27 stalls, Chip Woolley 25, and Justin Evans 20. Alfredo Juarez Jr. and Luis Fuentes, second and third in the Turf Paradise jockey standings, have brought their tack to Canterbury, as has journeyman Ty Kennedy.
Robertino Diodoro and Mac Robertson typically battle for leading trainer, and both have entrants on Tuesday’s nine-race opening-day card, which drew 95 entrants, including also-eligibles.
Canterbury has ended its jackpot-style pick six wager and replaced it with a standard pick six that carries just a 10 percent takeout. The track already had a pick five with just a 10 percent rake, and that bet continues, though there generally is just one such wager per card. The pick six comprises the last six races on the program.
Canterbury will permit 2,500 fans to attend the races at the start of the season, with that number rising into the summer. The attendance cap isn’t based upon COVID-19 regulations, Offerman said, so much as Canterbury’s ability to employ suitable staff to accommodate a greater number of patrons.
June 23, the date of five six-figure open turf stakes, including the $150,000 Mystic Lake Derby, highlights a stakes schedule heavy on Minnesota-bred races.