andrew offerman | Horse Racing Free Tips

Canterbury Season Concludes With Record Total Handle Of Over $90 Million

Canterbury Park's live horse racing season came to a conclusion Thursday night, producing record wagering figures while returning $15,558,701 in purses, the most ever in a single meet, to horse owners, jockeys and trainers, fueling an industry that supports thousands of jobs across the state. Wagering was robust during the 65-day season, 12 race days more than the pandemic-shortened 2020 meet, with a record total handle of $90,888,787, spurred by an average daily out-of-state handle of $1,267,985, a 3.9 percent rise over last year and a 178.9 percent increase over 2019. The 2021 total surpassed the previous Canterbury Park record of $68.4 million set last year.

With no COVID-19 restrictions in place this season, spectators returned and daily average on-track wagering increasing by 87.1 percent to $130,304, leaving officials at the Shakopee, Minn. racetrack thrilled about the season and optimistic for the future.

“It really was an encouraging racing season,” track president Randy Sampson said. “We maintained wagering levels out of state but most importantly we saw racing fans return to Canterbury Park. Business levels increased throughout the summer which allowed us to continue to bring employees back to work and provide the race-day experience that our guests expect.”

Purse money averaged $239,365 daily, with $7.28 of the more than $15 million total contributed by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community through a cooperative marketing and purse enhancement agreement reached with Canterbury Park in 2012. SMSC owns and operates nearby Mystic Lake Casino Hotel. More than $6.6 million in purses was paid to owners of horses that were foaled in Minnesota.

“With the support of horse trainers and owners, we presented an excellent racing product which continued to attract wagering across the country,” Vice President of Racing Operations Andrew Offerman said. “We are grateful for the owners, trainers, breeders, patrons and team that contributed to this record season and we celebrate the record purse distribution of more than $15 million dollars in 2021 that will allow industry participants to reinvest their earnings into future racing prospects and support vitals components of Minnesota's agriculture industry.”

Mac Robertson won the Thoroughbred training title for the 14th time with 62 wins. Lindey Wade, riding at Canterbury for the first time, was leading Thoroughbred jockey with 80 wins, 13 more than last year's champion Ry Eikleberry. Lothenbach Stables Inc. was leading thoroughbred owner with 32 wins and $886,904 in purse earnings. Jason Olmstead continued his dominance in the quarter horse ranks, easily winning his seventh consecutive training title. Tom Maher was leading owner and Edwin Escobedo was top quarter horse jockey.

Cinco Star, trained by Robertson, was named Horse of the Meet. The 6-year-old Minnesota bred, owned by John Mentz of Lakeville, won three times this summer including the Blair's Cove and Ralph Strangis Stakes.

Thursday's 13-race card attracted $2,892,591 in wagering. Minister of Soul under jockey Luis Fuentes won the $50,000 Tom Metzen HBPA Sprint Stakes. The 7-year-old is owned and trained by Esteban Martinez.

Robertson capped the season winning the $50,000 Shakopee Juvenile, a race he has now won five consecutive times, with 2-year-old Misyneedsacocktail. The filly was ridden by Luis Negron for owner Jac Mac Stable, LLC.

Canterbury Park's 2021 Horse of the Year and divisional champions:
• Horse of the Year – Cinco Star (owner: John Mentz : trainer: Mac Robertson)
• Sprinter – Clickbait (owner: Hugh Robertson, John Mentz & Jeff Larson : trainer: Mac Robertson)
• Older Filly or Mare – Ready to Runaway (owner: John Mentz : trainer: Mac Robertson)
• Older Horse – Cinco Star (owner: John Mentz : trainer: Mac Robertson)
• Grass Horse – Cinco Star (owner: John Mentz : trainer: Mac Robertson)
• Three-Year-Old Colt or Gelding – Thealligatorhunter (owner: Pete Mattson & Tim Padilla : trainer: Tim Padilla)
• Three-Year-Old Filly – Star of the North (owner: Michael Grossman : trainer: Francisco Bravo)
• Two-Year-Old – Love the Nest (owner: Lothenbach Stables, Inc : trainer: Joel Berndt)
• Claimer – Wild Behavior (owner: Empire Racing Stables : trainer: Robertino Diodoro)
• Quarter Horse – Jess Rocket Man (owner: Lunderborg LLC : trainer: Jason Olmstead)

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Canterbury Cancels Wednesday Thoroughbred Races, Pushes Post Time For Quarter Horse Qualifiers

With a high heat index expected, Canterbury Park racing officials will delay Wednesday evening's first post until 8:05 p.m. CDT and will not conduct the first five originally scheduled Thoroughbred races, leaving seven Quarter Horse races beginning at the adjusted start time.

The decision was made after consultation with the Minnesota Racing Commission veterinary staff and in agreement with the Minnesota HBPA.

The Wednesday program was to begin at 5:00 p.m. with 12 races, five Thoroughbred races followed by seven Quarter Horse races. With a heat index forecast to exceed 105 degrees into the early evening, racing officials opted to delay Wednesday's start until the apparent temperature is projected to subside and to cancel the first five races.

The seven quarter horse races, races 6 through 12, are time trials for the Northlands Futurity and the Canterbury Park Quarter Horse Derby. The final race is now scheduled for 10:53 p.m.

“We made the decision to delay Wednesday racing, based on the forecast of an extremely high heat index, with the safety of all participants, horses, jockeys, staff and spectators, in mind,” Vice President of Racing Andrew Offerman said. “We are confident that by 8 p.m. the temperatures will have decreased to a comfortable and safe level.”

There will be no admission charge on Wednesday. Gates open at 7:00 p.m. Indoor seating, which is also free, offers air conditioned comfort.

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Canterbury Park’s Mid-Season Handle Figures Show Continued Growth

Horse racing resumes Wednesday at Canterbury Park following a nine-day break while the Shakopee, Minn. entertainment facility hosted Twin Cities Summer Jam, a three-day music festival held in the racetrack infield. The pause allowed horse trainers and their equine counterparts to prepare for the final 29 days of the 65-day season. Canterbury officials are pleased and encouraged by several metrics, including wagering numbers, from the first 36 days.

Average daily handle, the amount of money wagered, increased 12.8 percent compared to 2020 and 153.2 percent compared to the first 36 days of 2019. In 2020, due to the pandemic, Canterbury ran a shortened, Monday through Thursday season and was allowed no more than 750 spectators per day. This was a deviation from the 25-year tradition of racing Thursday through Sunday with an average of 6,500 spectators.

The shift in days of the week attracted an increased national wagering audience during a timeframe with much less competition resulting in a dramatic increase in daily average out-of-state handle, a trend that continues in 2021 as Canterbury runs a hybrid schedule of Sundays at 1:00 p.m. and Tuesdays through Thursdays at 5:00 p.m. Out-of-state average handle increased by 8.3 percent over last year, and 221.8 percent over 2019, to $1.3 million per day. On-track handle, with no spectator capacity limits, is nearly double the 2020 average and down just 19.7 percent compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 season, an average racing officials are content with as spectators begin to adapt and return to post-pandemic events.

“We are very pleased with the mid-season figures,” Vice President of Racing Operations Andrew Offerman said. “We have thoroughly enjoyed the return of the energy and excitement of live racing fans although we knew there would be an adjustment period following such a dramatic schedule shift. Our participants have remarked about the renewed energy and excitement in the facility so it is clear that everyone is pleased to be getting back to normal.

“Additionally, our product has continued to be popular across the country which is very rewarding to see in the year following the pandemic. In the second half of the race meet we continue to look for ways to entertain the local live racing fan while cultivating a strong racing product for the national audience,” Offerman said.

The stability of purses paid to horse owners has been a major factor in the success of the season thus far. Purses have averaged $235,237 per day, an increase of 29.6 percent over last year when business-level decreases necessitated lower purses. The 2021 average is 4.8 percent more than 2019. The purse structure has created competiveness and an average of 7.15 starters per race, a figure consistent with the past two seasons.

“There is no doubt that our careful purse management in 2020 proved beneficial in 2021 as we have been able to return purses to their pre-pandemic levels,” Offerman said. “Our participants have responded by continuing to fill competitive race cards, a trend I anticipate will continue throughout the season.”

Offerman views the level of claiming activity as an indicator of a healthy race meet as well. There is a demand for horses and increased participation by owners with a total of 143 horses having been claimed compared to 72 and 74 in the past two seasons during the same time. A claiming race is a race in which horses may be purchased by a licensed owner for the claiming price listed for that race.
Past meet leaders congregate near the top of the thoroughbred trainer and owner standings. Robertino Diodoro and Mac Robertson vie for top trainer honors. Diodoro won three races on July 18 and has a 32 to 31 lead over Robertson. Empire Racing Stables, LLC has 15 wins, two more than 2020 leading owner Lothenbach Stables, Inc. Novogratz Racing Stables also has 13 wins.

Lindey Wade, new to Canterbury this season, is the leading jockey through 36 days, winning with 37 of 165 mounts. Alonso Quinonez has 32 wins and 2020 leading rider Ry Eikleberry has 30.

Canterbury continues to offer an industry-low 10 percent takeout rate on the $.50 Pick 5 wager and the $1 Pick 6 wager. Both the Pick 5 and Pick 6, offered daily, are traditional wagers distributing the full pool less takeout to bettors selecting the first-place horse in each leg of the wager.

Post time Wednesday and Thursday is 5:00 p.m. Information can be found at www.canterburypark.com .

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Canterbury VP Andrew Offerman Joins Writers’ Room

With smaller tracks gradually disappearing over time, it takes a concerted effort to build a fan customer base that can sustain your business in a non-marquee racing state. Minnesota's Canterbury Park is one of those outliers, a track whose management has put in the work to run a profitable enterprise while managing to attract novice fans and satisfy horseplayers alike, all without the buttressing revenue of slots.

Wednesday morning, Canterbury's VP of Racing Operations Andrew Offerman joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to talk about the track's blueprint for standing out on a lesser circuit. Calling in as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Offerman discussed the track's decision to drop its Pick 5 takeout to an industry-low 10%, what it's trying to do to attract new owners and trainers and how to still bring fans to the track in 2021.

“We've had a couple different forays into takeout reduction,” Offerman said regarding the successful Pick 5 experiment. “We did some more across-the-board cuts a few years ago, and that didn't work as well as the Pick 5 takeout reduction did. Last year, when we were kind of forced to change our business strategy from being really on-track centric to trying to focus more on off-track betting markets, we knew we had to do something to become more attractive, beyond just running through the middle of the week. So looking at our Pick 5 and trying to do something unique with that wager as it continues to grow in popularity seemed like a good opportunity. The results were great. It enhanced our visibility, did a lot for our other pools around those races and really showed us a new ability to generate interest in a pool that ended up averaging around $80,000, which for us is pretty substantial.”

Faced with the difficulty of drawing owners, trainers and horses to a relatively remote part of the country, Offerman laid out some new incentive programs Canterbury is trying out for the 2021 meet, which starts May 18.

“We've always tried to come up with unique things,” he said. “We realized that when you look at the normal areas that race across the country, Minnesota's not necessarily on their map. So we came up with an early-meet incentive program that gives everyone who starts in an open overnight race an extra $1,000 throughout the month of May to try to help offset the costs of shipping, because we acknowledge that most people have a long van ride to get here from wherever they might be during the winter. We also guarantee stipends per starter over the course of the meet. It's tiered by purse level, but starts at $200 and works its way up from there. We've also been able to offer an interest-free loan program for qualified applicants where people can basically sign a zero-interest shipping loan that they can pay back over the course of the summer.”

Elsewhere in the podcast, the writers responded to the reaction from Bill Finley's critical op/ed about horsemen's groups' suit over HISA, and, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, analyzed the delinquent Ramseys story and positive returns from OBS March. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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