minnesota festival of champions | Horse Racing Free Tips

Canterbury Park’s 2022 Thoroughbred Stakes Schedule Offers Over $2 Million In Purses

Canterbury Park's 2022 Thoroughbred stakes schedule will feature 27 stakes, 15 on the main track and 12 on the turf, which will offer $2,060,000 in purses. Building on a successful strategy employed over the past two seasons, the stakes races will again be clustered on specific dates during the 65-day meet that begins May 18 and runs through Sept. 19.

Stakes for horses bred in Minnesota will be run primarily on Saturday evenings while open-company stakes will occur on Wednesday nights. Post time on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays is 5:00 p.m. CDT and 1:00 p.m. on Sundays.

The Mystic Lake Northern Stars Racing Festival is set for Wednesday, June 22 and features the richest race of the season, the Mystic Lake Derby, a one-mile turf race with a $150,000 purse, along with four $100,000 races: the Lady Canterbury, the Curtis Sampson Oaks, the Mystic Lake Mile and the Dark Star Turf Sprint. Also included is the $60,000 MTA Stallion Auction Stakes, bringing the stakes purse total for that night to $610,000. Last season the Northern Stars Festival, with the same races grouped on a June Wednesday, attracted a record handle of $3,795,180.

“The Mystic Lake Northern Stars Racing Festival has proven popular with connections throughout the Midwest as evidenced by last year's strong fields,” Vice President of Racing Operations Andrew Offerman said. “We plan to continually improve this event and believe that keeping it on a Wednesday evening will allow it to be uniquely featured across the country.”

The 29th Minnesota Festival of Champions, a program of races dedicated to horses bred in the state, will be Saturday, Sept. 10. The six Thoroughbred stakes will each offer a $100,000 purse.

Hall of Fame Night, with four $50,000 Minnesota-bred stakes, is Saturday, July 16. The $100,000 Minnesota Derby and Minnesota Oaks co-headline Made in Minnesota Night on Aug. 13 which also includes the $50,000 Wally's Choice Stakes and Glitter Star Stakes.

“Regarding the state-bred program, we felt it was important to move our featured Minnesota races to Saturday evenings for the benefit of the owners,” Offerman said. “We acknowledge that watching your horse in person and bringing family and friends to the races is a significant part of the experience. Running these events on Saturday evenings will accommodate that goal while also providing enhanced visibility to the wagering audience on nights when we will have large crowds.”

The first condition book and stall application, due April 4, are available at www.canterburypark.com/horsemen. A shipping and participation incentive program will be announced next week with the objective of attracting new stables to Canterbury Park and encouraging participation in the first weeks of the season.

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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.

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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

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Canterbury Handles Record $2 Million During Minnesota Festival Of Champions

Rain may have forced scratches and surface changes Wednesday at Canterbury Park, but it did not dampen the spirit of participants in the 27th Minnesota Festival of Champions, an evening of racing restricted to horses bred in the state and designed to celebrate the industry. The 12-race card, with eight stakes, was conducted over a sloppy main track with five races moved from the rain-saturated turf course to the slop in front of a capacity crowd limited to 750 spectators due to COVID-19 restrictions. On track handle was $121,434 while total handle of $2,048,915 was a record for the event.

Ready to Runaway continued her Canterbury dominance winning the $100,000 Bella Notte Minnesota Distaff Sprint by 4 1/4 lengths in 1:10.12, her sixth stakes winner, including a 2019 Festival victory, since being claimed last summer for $25,000 by John Mentz of Lakeville, Minn. The 4-year-old filly came from off the pace, before taking command in the stretch. “I was a little concerned because I thought she would get the lead,” Mentz said. “But she has been so good. When you claim a horse you just hope to get a [winner's circle] picture taken, not win a $100,000 stakes race.” Roimes Chirinos rode the $2.20 winner for trainer Mac Robertson.

Chirinos and Robertson teamed up again to win the $100,000 Princess Elaine, moved from turf to the main track, with Clickbait who is co-owned by Mentz, Jeff Larson and Hugh Robertson. Clickbait won easily by 7 ½ lengths and paid $3.20 as the favorite. Robertson has won a record 37 Festival races.

Drop of Golden Sun raced gate to wire in the 1 1/16 mile $100,000 Blair's Cove Stakes under Francisco Arrieta winning by two lengths over Dame Plata. The 5-year-old is owned and trained by Tony Rengstorf. Made the wagering favorite off a front running win in the Wally's Choice Stakes Aug. 19 at the same distance, Drop of Golden Sun paid $5.20 to win covering the distance in 1:42.57.

Sneeky Diversion, a 2-year-old gelding who eight days earlier broke his maiden at first asking, battled for the lead with eventual fourth place finisher Well Pro for a half-mile in the six furlong $100,000 Northern Lights Futurity before prevailing by 1 1/2 lengths over closer Fitzpatrick in 1:09.80. Sneeky Diversion, who paid $9.80, was ridden by Dean Butler for leading owner Lothenbach Stables, Inc. and leading trainer Joel Berndt. This was the first Festival victory for Berndt.

Jockey Ry Eikleberry wasted no time sending 2-year-old filly Star of the North to the lead in the $100,000 Northern Lights Debutante and was never challenged, winning by 4 1/2 lengths in 1:10.77 for six furlongs and paying $8.00 to win. The filly is owned by Michael Grossman and trained by Francisco Bravo.

Trainer David Van Winkle won $100,000 Crocrock Minnesota Sprint with Fireman Oscar who closed from last to win by three lengths after chasing a pace of 43.93 seconds for the half mile. The 6-year-old completed six furlongs in 1:08.80. Fireman Oscar is owned and was bred by Peter Mattson and was ridden by Alonso Quinonez.

The $70,350 Minnesota Quarter Horse Futurity was decided by a head as Corona White Sox defeated favorite Western Reserve with Nik Goodwin aboard for trainer Patrick Swan and owner and breeder Dan Kjorsvik.

“I broke really, really well,” Goodwin said. “I was pretty confident,” he said after a photo finish determined the winner.

Eikleberry closed out the card winning the $67,250 Minnesota Quarter Horse Derby on the favorite Vo Fantastic Aira who paid $3.40. The 3-year-old was a head better than Johnee B. Vo Fantastic Aira is trained by Ed Ross Hardy for the meet's leading quarter horse owner Corey Wilmes.

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