Trainer Mike Biehler sends out back-to-back exactas

The 14 races trainer Mike Biehler won during 2018 marked his lowest annual total since 1995, but the Minnesota native, who began training in 1989 at Canterbury, has restocked his stable and is rolling early this Canterbury season.

Biehler entering this week’s racing had a meet record of 14-5-3-2 after winning just seven races throughout the entire 2018 Canterbury meet, and the Friday night card of May 17 was particularly memorable.

In race 5, a Minnesota-bred maiden special weight, Biehler ran one-two with first time-starting Shabam, ridden by Eddie Martin, and the previously raced Shez Just Cruisin, ridden by Lori Keith (who is Biehler’s fiancée).

Twenty-nine minutes later, in another Minnesota-bred maiden-special, Biehler-trained first-time starters finished one-two, with 10-1 Diva de Kela under Keith home by a neck over 23-1 Facing North, Martin up.

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“I would say, yeah, it was one of the better half-hours I’ve had,” Biehler said. “I’m not a gambler, but we did bet a little on them. We liked those horses.”

Facing North, the runner-up in race 6, had only recently come into the Biehler stable, but the other three had been prepared for these races at Biehler’s farm in Oklahoma, which sits about six miles from Remington Park, his home track when he’s not stabled at Canterbury. The farm has 30 stalls and a half-mile training track over which Biehler does everything but faster-timed workouts. For those, the horses ship to Remington.

Biehler won 47 races in 2015 but was forced to reconstitute his operation when a relationship with prominent and active owners Al and Bill Ulwelling ended.

“That was the bulk of my stable and we were really down on numbers last year,” Biehler said. “Hopefully we can keep this going.”

Biehler said he still has a few more first-timers to start in upcoming Canterbury races. Bettors would do well to keep an eye out for them.

◗ Minnesota-bred Mr. Jagermeister was scratched May 18 from the 10,000 Lakes Stakes, a race in which he’d have been an odds-on favorite, because of a sloppy track, trainer Valorie Lund said. Lund said she isn’t yet certain when and were Mr. Jagermeister will next start.