canterbury | Horse Racing Free Tips

Love The Nest Impressive On Minnesota Festival Of Champions Night

Love the Nest, a 2-year-old son of Blame trained by Joel Berndt and owned by Robert Lothenbach, powered to an impressive 7 1/4 length victory in Wednesday's Northern Lights Futurity, one of six $100,000 statebred Thoroughbred stakes on Minnesota Festival of Champions Night at Canterbury Park.

Love the Nest broke quickly from the gate under Ry Eikleberry and battled between horses through a fast 21.66 second first quarter mile. The prohibitive favorite took control at the quarter pole and discouraged Doctor Oscar, second in the wagering at 5 to 2, who moved in from off the pace. The well-regarded colt pulled away in a final time of 1:10.27 for six furlongs.

“When he broke so clean I was very confident,” Berndt said, “and then turning for home I saw Oscar on the outside and I thought it's a horse race. Very happy he kept on and it looks like he can go a little further.”

Love the Nest paid $3.20 to win.

“He'll be a nice 3-year old,” Berndt said, not yet willing to commit to another race this year.

Eikleberry also rode Drop of Golden Sun to a win in the $100,000 Crocrock Sprint Championship, this time coming from five lengths back. He passed pacesetter Mr. Jagermeister in deep stretch to win by 3/4 length. Drop of Golden Sun is owned and trained by Tony Rengstorf. He paid $11.00 to win.

Mac Robertson added to his record 37 Festival victories by winning two more, both for owner John Mentz of Lakeville and both with Roimes Chirinos aboard. Cinco Star won the Blair's Cove Turf Championship by a length and a half and Clickbait the scratch-depleted three-horse Bella Notte Distaff Sprint by 9 3/4 lengths. Each was a prohibitive favorite with Clickbait paying $3.20 and Cinco Star $3.40.

The stakes portion of the 12-race card began in the fifth race with 2-year-old She's My Warrior racing gate to wire under Alonso Quinonez. She's My Warrior is trained by Tim Padilla who co-owns the filly with Pete Mattson of Prior Lake. Breaking from the rail, she jumped to the lead, was challenged by favorite Honey Bella, but quickly increased her advantage, in the end winning by 3 3/4 lengths.

“We weren't going to get trapped down there behind other horses,” Padilla said after the race.

Rush Hour Traffic provided a mild upset in the Princess Elaine Distaff Turf Championship. Unchallenged for the lead, the 4-year-old filly went gate to wire with Ruben Fuentes riding for trainer Gary Scherer and owner Sugarland Thoroughbreds LLC. She returned $12.60. Ready to Runaway, trained by Robertson, finished a nonthreatening second.

“She's a strong filly,” said Scherer who did not expect Rush Hour Traffic to go to the front. “Once she broke good [Fuentes] was committed to stay just stay where he was at. It worked out well.”

The card concluded with the $62,900 Minnesota Quarter Horse Futurity and the $60,550 Minnesota Quarter Horse Derby. Jason Olmstead trained the winning favorites of both races. In the Futurity, Olmstead trainees finished first through fourth with Relentless Courage a length the best. Luis Valenzuela rode for owners Paul Luedemann and Tom Maher. In the Derby, Jess Rocket Man was simply too much, covering 400 yards in 19.870 second, winning by 1 1/4 lengths over Western Reserve. Edwin Escobeo rode the winner for Lunderborg LLC.

Total handle was $1,884,984, the second largest total in the 28 renditions of the Festival of Champions.

The post Love The Nest Impressive On Minnesota Festival Of Champions Night appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Minnesota’s Best Line Up In Wednesday’s Festival Of Champions At Canterbury

Minnesota's top Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses will race Wednesday at Canterbury Park in the 28th Minnesota Festival of Champions. The 12-race card, restricted to horses bred in the state, includes six $100,000 stakes and will pay a total of $852,450 in purses. First post is scheduled for 4:10 p.m.

The Festival began in 1992 when Minnesota horsemen were determined to show then-owner Ladbroke Racing Corp., who clearly had little interest in operating the track in the future, that horse racing could thrive in the state. Horse breeders, trainers and owners, including current track CEO Randy Sampson, banded together to present a day of racing that would feature horses bred in the state. The event drew a large crowd and was televised in the Twin Cities. As feared, Ladbroke closed what was then Canterbury Downs at the end of the year. The success of the first Festival however kept the flame alive and two years later Sampson, his father Curtis and South St. Paul businessman Dale Schenian purchased the Shakopee property and returned racing to Minnesota in 1995 at a newly branded Canterbury Park. The Minnesota Festival of Champions has been a focal point each summer since.

Leading trainer Mac Robertson, who has won a record 37 Festival races, is represented in each of the six Thoroughbred stakes and will saddle the morning line favorite in four. Jockey Roimes Chirinos will be aboard each of those including 2-year-old Honey Bella in the Debutante, Ready to Runaway in the Princess Elaine, Cinco Star in the Blair's Cove and Clickbait in the Bella Notte Sprint.

Pete Mattson of Prior Lake looks forward to this night each season. He owns and bred eight horses competing in four of the races and is also breeder of the Northern Lights Futurity favorite Love the Nest that he sold at the Keeneland September sale last fall. Fireman Oscar, entered in the Crocrock Sprint, accounts for both of Mattson's Festival victories. Now seven, he won the 2020 Crocrock and the Futurity as a 2-year-old.

“Festival shows who the best 2-year-olds are. Everything points to these last races,” Mattson said. “You really don't know until they race each other.” The lucrative purses are important to those investing extensively in Minnesota racing as well. “There is a big financial reward if they win,” he said.

While Mattson has a pair of fillies in the Debutante he is higher on his 2-year-old colts, Doctor Oscar and Ben's Malice, in the Futurity.

“Both are going to be very exceptional race horses,” he predicts. The Futurity's field of 10 is the largest of the thoroughbred stakes.

In the quarter horse stakes, Jason Olmstead, who has won seven consecutive training titles at Canterbury, is favored to win both the Minnesota Futurity and Minnesota Derby. Relentless Courage, a three-time winner this summer is 2 to 1 in the 350-yard Futurity and Jess Rocket Man is 8 to 5 in the 400-yard Derby.

The card will offer two pick five wagers, beginning in the first and sixth races. Canterbury offers an industry low 10 percent takeout on the 50 cent pick five as well as the $1 pick six which begins in the fifth race. Additional information is available at www.canterburypark.com .

Stakes Race Line-Up

Race 5 – $100,000 Northern Lights Debutante
Race 6 – $100,000 Princess Elaine Minnesota Distaff Turf
Race 7 – $100,000 Blair's Cove Minnesota Turf
Race 8 – $100,000 Northern Lights Futurity
Race 9 – $100,000 Crocrock Minnesota Sprint
Race 10 – $100,000 Bella Notte Minnesota Distaff Sprint
Race 11 – $62,900 Minnesota Quarter Horse Futurity
Race 12 – $60,550 Minnesota Quarter Horse Derby

The post Minnesota’s Best Line Up In Wednesday’s Festival Of Champions At Canterbury appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

SEC Files Ponzi Scheme Charges Against Top Minnesota Racehorse Owners

Minnesota-based Empire Racing Stables owner Jason Bullard is among two individuals charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday to stop an alleged Ponzi scheme. According to the complaint, Bullard and his partner, Angela Romero-Bullard, misappropriated investors' money to support other businesses they owned, including their horse racing stable.

The stakes-winning ownership entity lists earnings of over $2.4 million since 2016, according to Equibase, with 146 individually-owned winners and multiple additional horses owned in partnerships. Thus far in 2021, Empire Racing Stables has started 179 horses, primarily at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., with 34 winners and nearly $600,000 in earnings.

Empire Racing Stables is currently second in the owner standings at Canterbury, and shared the leading owner title in 2019.

The SEC filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order and an asset freeze to stop the alleged Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Shakopee, Minn., residents Jason Dodd Bullard and Angela Romero-Bullard and the entity they control, Bullard Enterprises LLC. The SEC also named four relief defendants in the action – entities controlled by Bullard and Romero-Bullard that received investor funds from the alleged scheme.

According to the SEC's complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, from at least 2007 to 2021, the defendants raised approximately $17.6 million from as many as 200 investors to invest in Bullard Enterprises' purported Flagship and Platinum Funds. Bullard and Romero-Bullard allegedly told investors – most of whom were friends and family, including many elderly retirees – that their investments would be used to trade foreign currencies, and sent investors account statements showing that their accounts were increasing in value. In reality, according to the complaint, Bullard Enterprises stopped trading in foreign currencies in 2015, and the defendants simply used new investor money to pay purported “returns” to existing investors. Also according to the complaint, Bullard and Romero-Bullard misappropriated investors' money to support other businesses they owned, including a horse racing stable, limousine service, and health and fitness studio.

“Many of the investor-victims in this case were friends and family of Bullard and Romero-Bullard who trusted their promises about investment strategy and expected returns,” said Nekia Hackworth Jones, Director of the SEC's Atlanta Regional Office. “As alleged in the complaint, Bullard and Romero-Bullard breached that trust for years. Instead of delivering on their promises, these individuals used false statements and fraudulent documents to convince investors to pour millions of dollars into bank accounts used almost exclusively for Ponzi-style payments and for their personal benefit.”

The SEC's complaint charges the defendants with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. In addition to temporary relief, the complaint seeks, among other things, preliminary and permanent injunctions, disgorgement, prejudgment interest, civil penalties, and an asset freeze.

The SEC's ongoing investigation is being conducted by enforcement staff in the Atlanta Regional Office. The investigative team includes Justin Delfino, Krysta Cannon, and Tiffany Kunkle, and is supervised by Peter Diskin and Justin Jeffries. The SEC's litigation will be led by Patrick Huddleston.

The post SEC Files Ponzi Scheme Charges Against Top Minnesota Racehorse Owners appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Favorites Look Tough To Beat In Wednesday’s Minnesota Oaks, Derby At Canterbury Park

There will be prohibitive favorites in both the Minnesota Derby and Minnesota Oaks Wednesday at Canterbury Park. Thealligatorhunter in the Derby and Star of the North in the Oaks are both 3-5 on the morning line and represent the best of the 3-year-old statebred crop in a pair of $100,000 stakes conducted at one mile and 70 yards on the main track. The 11-race card, billed as Made in MN Night, begins at 5:00 p.m. and also includes the $50,000 Wally's Choice and $50,000 Glitter Star Stakes for older Minnesota breds.

Thealligatorhunter and Star of the North have finished first in their seven collective races this season at Canterbury, however Thealligatorhunter was disqualified for interference and placed second in his most recent start.

Each won their July 14 six furlong Oaks and Derby prep races. Star of the North went gate to wire in the $50,000 Frances Genter Stakes as the odds-on choice, winning by 3 1/4 lengths. Thealligatorhunter took control of the Victor S. Myers Stakes mid-race and cruised home by four lengths. Ry Eikleberry rode Star of the North for trainer Francisco Bravo. Alonso Quinonez rode Thealligatorhunter for Tim Padilla. Both will be aboard again Wednesday.

The colt and filly tried a longer distance for the first time in one mile allowance races. Star of the North again led her field gate to wire, winning easily as the unchallenged 1-9 favorite on July 29. Thealligatorhunter faced a bit tougher task Aug. 1. He was bumped at the start before dueling throughout with the older Minnesota Miracle. At the sixteenth pole Thealligatorhunter shifted out, making contact and held a 3/4-length edge at the finish line, but was subsequently disqualified.

The Minnesota Derby is the sixth race on the card with a 7:40 post time and is followed by the Oaks.

Drop of Golden Sun won the 2020 Wally's Choice racing gate to wire in the 1 1/16 mile stake, defeating Cinco Star, the morning-line favorite in this year's rendition, by four lengths. The two met July 14 when Cinco Star closed to win the Ralph Strangis Stakes. Quinonez will ride Drop of Golden Sun while Roimes Chirinos, who left Shakopee in late July to ride in New Mexico, returns for the mount on Cinco Star for trainer Mac Robertson.

Chirinos also is named on Ready to Runaway, the favorite in the Glitter Star who won this stake in 2019 and 2020 for owner John Mentz and trainer Robertson. The consistent 5-year-old mare has 11 wins and three second-place finishes from 14 starts at Canterbury. Mentz claimed her as a 3-year-old for $25,000 and since she has won nine races including seven stakes, and $390,185 in purses for the Lakeville owner. Ready to Runaway's earnings racing at Canterbury of $400,675 is the fourth largest sum in the history of the Shakopee racetrack.

The post Favorites Look Tough To Beat In Wednesday’s Minnesota Oaks, Derby At Canterbury Park appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post