Trainer Rhone retiring after Canterbury meet

Bernell Rhone said he will be retiring from training after the close of the Canterbury Park meet on Saturday. He has four starters on the card at the Minnesota track, where he is a member of the Canterbury Hall of Fame.

“I’m getting out, but I’m not leaving,” he said. “All my best friends are all on the racetrack. I think I’ll still own a horse or two. I don’t want to get out. I just want to have more free time to do some things. I want to go to the Calgary Stampede. I want to see Yellowstone again, and the Grand Canyon.”

Rhone, 75, has raced throughout the Midwest since he began training in the 1970s. He was a longtime regular at Hawthorne and Sportsman’s and among other venues raced in Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, and Oklahoma.

Rhone brought the first horse onto the Canterbury grounds ahead of its opening season in 1985, according to track spokesman Jeff Maday.

“I was racing up in Canada, at Assiniboia Downs, and they had passed racing here in Minnesota,” Rhone said. “Although they hadn’t built the track yet, I bought a small farm. I did that the year before it opened, so I started the move early.”

Maday said Rhone leads all trainers in Canterbury starts (6,785, according to Daily Racing Form statistics) and ranks second in both local wins (892) and stable earnings ($13.6 million).

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Rhone’s most popular runners included eight-time stakes winners Dontbotherknocking and Heza Wild Guy.

Rhone will retire to his home in Oldsmar, Fla. His career path did not start in racing, but it ends here Saturday.

“I went to college and became a teacher, then I went back and got my master’s in counseling, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do,” he said. “I wanted to be outside working with horses.”

◗ Canterbury announced apprentice Serafin Carmona will ride the opening-day card at Santa Anita on Friday, but also will be active at Canterbury through closing day on Saturday.

◗ Breeders Sales of Louisiana will conduct a yearling auction and mixed session on Friday in Opelousas, La. It will begin at 10 a.m. Central. There are 167 yearlings cataloged and a mixed session follows featuring 34 lots.

◗ Louisiana Downs closes its meet Thursday with a nine-race card that starts at 1:45 p.m. Central.

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