Canterbury Park’s 69-day racing season, the longest since
2006, concluded Saturday with gains in average handle and attendance. Off-track
wagering, dollars bet on Canterbury races at other tracks and through internet
sites, increased by 46.7 percent while average daily on-track wagering was up
4.8 percent. Average daily attendance was 6,656, a Canterbury Park record.
“We set a couple of goals this season,” Canterbury Park CEO
Randy Sampson said. “First, we wanted to improve the quality of our racing
product by attracting new stables and more horses. We knew if that happened we
could accomplish our second goal which was to increase our national exposure and
wagering handle.”
Average field size, 8.36 starters per
race, was up this season as well which aided the wagering increase. The quality
and depth of those fields also improved, witnessed by favorites winning at a 35
percent rate compared to 45 percent last year.
For the first time since 1991, Canterbury’s 1,600 stalls
were filled by racehorses as several new trainers tried the Shakopee, Minnesota,
racetrack for the first time. Purses this season were more than double what they
were in 2011 due to a joint purse enhancement and marketing agreement signed in
June of 2012 with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.
The agreement will
add $75 million to horsemen purses over the life of the 10-year deal. A record
of $12,453,268 in purse money was paid this season.
The increased purses attracted Midwest Thoroughbreds Inc.,
the leading owners in the nation for the past three years, to Canterbury for the
first time. Their stable was handled by trainer Roger Brueggemann, who won 28
races to make Midwest Thoroughbreds the meet’s leading owner.
“This year was a great step toward what we hope to
accomplish with our live racing,” Sampson said. “Prominent horsemen find our
purse structure attractive and horseplayers across the country are taking notice
as well.”
Mac Robertson won his ninth consecutive training title with
51 victories. He set a single-season earnings record of $1,340,429.
Dean Butler won the riding title for the fourth time. He
finished the season with 67 wins, two more than Alex Canchari.
Heliskier was voted Horse of the Year for the second
consecutive season. The four-year-old Minnesota-bred gelding won three of five
starts, including the 10,000 Lakes Stakes and Crocrock
Minnesota Sprint Championship. Heliskier is owned by Marlene Colvin of Ethan, South
Dakota,
and is trained by Robertson. Heliskier also earned divisional titles in the
categories of sprinter and older horse.
Stacy Charette-Hill won the Quarter Horse training title
with 19 wins from 37 starts. Her starters finished in the top three at a 92
percent rate. Charette-Hill won Canterbury’s two most prestigious quarter horse
races, the Canterbury Park Quarter Horse Derby and Mystic
Lake Northlands Futurity.
Jorge Torres was the leading Quarter Horse jockey with
20 wins. Brenda Reiswig of Bismarck, North Dakota, repeated as leading Quarter Horse
owner with eight wins. Stone Cottrell, winner of the Skip Zimmerman and Dash in
a Flash Stakes, was named Quarter Horse of the meet. He is trained by Charette-Hill.
Canterbury’s 2013 divisional champions
| Category | Winner | |
| Horse of the Year | Heliskier | |
| Sprinter | Heliskier | |
| Older Horse | Heliskier | |
| Three-Year-Old Colt or Gelding | Dorsett | |
| Three-Year-Old Filly | Badge of Glory | |
| Grass Horse | Dontrattlemycage | |
| Older Filly or Mare | Second Street City | |
| Two-Year-Old | Appeal to the King | |
| Claimer | Machorina | |
| Quarter Horse | Stone Cottrell |
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