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Canterbury Park Announces 2021 Stakes Schedule Worth Over $2 Million

Canterbury Park racing officials have announced that 27 stakes races with purses totaling $2,060,000 will be run during the 65-day 2021 race meet that begins May 18. The richest of the stakes is the $150,000 Mystic Lake Derby at one mile on the turf on June 23, part of the six-stake Northern Stars Turf Festival. Again in 2021, each of the six stakes comprising the Sept. 8 Minnesota Festival of Champions will offer $100,000 purses. All but two of the meet's stakes will be run on Wednesday evenings, when first post is 5:00 p.m.

The Mystic Lake Northern Stars Turf Festival includes four $100,000 turf races in addition to the Mystic Lake Derby. Also on that date are the Mystic Lake Mile, the Lady Canterbury Stakes, the Dark Star Turf Sprint, and the Curtis Sampson Oaks, named in honor of the late Canterbury Park founder and Chairman who died in 2020. The race previously was run as the Northbound Pride Oaks. The $60,000 MTA Stallion Auction Stakes is also June 23.

Vice President of Racing Operations Andrew Offerman has scheduled preview days to offer racing opportunities leading up to the major stakes dates. The Northern Stars Turf Festival is previewed on May 26 with three $50,000 turf stakes, the Honor the Hero Stakes, HBPA Distaff, and Brooks Fields Stakes.

“Clustering stakes races to offer high quality racing on selected Wednesdays throughout the meet will continue to strengthen Canterbury's national presence,” Offerman said.

Offerman used a similar strategy in 2020 when the track switched from traditional weekend racing that attracted large in-person crowds no longer possible during the COVID-19 pandemic to a weeknight schedule. Handle soared to a record $68 million for the 53-day meet, easily eclipsing the previous record of $48 million over 69 days in 2018.

Hall of Fame Day is July 14, offering Minnesota-breds $50,000 purses in four stakes. The Ralph Strangis Stakes and Minnesota Turf Distaff are turf routes. Three-year-olds will sprint in the Victor S. Myers and Frances Genter before stretching out in distance on Aug. 18 in the Minnesota Derby and Minnesota Oaks, each offering $100,000 and anchoring Made in Minnesota Day, which includes the $50,000 Wally's Choice Stakes and Glitter Star Stakes.

Overnight purse levels, which saw slight decreases in 2020 due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, will return to or exceed the levels of 2019 depending on race condition.

The race meet concludes Sept. 16. Condition books and stall applications are available now HERE. Track officials anticipate announcing a new shipping and participation incentive program in the coming weeks with the objective of attracting additional participants to Canterbury Park.

Complete Stakes Schedule

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Breeders’ Cup Delaying 2021 Ticket Sales ‘Until We Have Greater Clarity’

The 2021 Breeders' Cup World Championships are scheduled for Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar in Southern California, but CEO Drew Fleming revealed on Monday that the Breeders' Cup is delaying ticket sales for the event, according to Fox 5 San Diego.

“We are working closely with Del Mar, local officials and public health experts to safely plan the 2021 World Championships,” Fleming said. “To ensure we have the most up-to-date safety protocols in place in compliance with CDC guidelines, including the permitted levels of attendance, we are delaying ticket sales for the 2021 Breeders' Cup World Championships until we have greater clarity on the ever-changing landscape. Rest assured, it is our strong intent to safely host fans at the 2021 World Championships.”

Fans were not allowed at the 2020 World Championships, hosted at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky., due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Navarro Among Handful Of Federal Defendants Filing Motions To Dismiss Drug Charges

Jorge Navarro, Dr. Seth Fishman, Jordan Fishman, Lisa Gianelli, Dr. Erica Garcia, Rick Dane Jr., Christopher Oakes, and Michael Tannuzzo have all entered documents in U.S. District Court asking a judge to dismiss charges against them related to drug adulteration and misbranding conspiracy.

Defendants Seth Fishman and Gianelli filed a motion to dismiss various counts of the superseding indictment last week, which was followed by letters of intent from attorneys for Navarro, Garcia, Jordan Fishman and Dane stating their intent to join in. The motion from Fishman and Giannelli's attorneys site a few different bases for the motion, particularly that the counts as written don't allege illegal actions under the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, which is the basis for the criminal charges.

According to texts and phone calls intercepted by the FBI, Navarro requested misbranded or adulterated drugs from Fishman for administration to horses in his care, including X Y Jet, who died suddenly of an apparent heart attack in January 2020.

Their motion also casts doubt on who was supposedly deceived by their alleged activities involving misbranded drugs. The indictment stated that the drugs were designed to evade detection by state racing officials or tracks, but the defendants claim that misleading state officials and racetracks isn't a federal crime under the Act.

Oakes' motion includes similar language, while Tannuzzo's states that the first count of the superseding indictment “fail[s] to state an offense as applied to him.”

The government has not yet responded to those motions and letters of intent, filed Feb. 5.

The federal case includes five total counts — four charges of drug adulteration and misbranding conspiracy and one count of mail and wire fraud — with different groups of defendants attached to each, dependent upon their alleged actions and relationship with each other. Charges were originally filed in March 2020 accusing more than two dozen people in the Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries of doping racehorses with adulterated or misbranded drugs or supplying such materials to horsemen. A superseding indictment was filed in November 2020 and left off a number of the original defendants from the March indictment, including Gregory Skelton, Ross Cohen, Nick Surick, Chris Marino and Henry Argueta, though it's unclear whether that means those defendants have taken deals with prosecutors. Their case files remain open with no plea change as of this writing.

According to a status conference last summer, discovery in this case is not expected to be completed before late fall, as attorneys for the Southern District of New York have provided voluminous evidence collected by a lengthy FBI investigation to defense counsel. That status conference set dates by which various motions and subsequent responses would be due by both sides in the case, and those deadlines stretch on through the spring.

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Indiana Grand To Host AQHA’s Bank Of America Challenge Championships In 2022

For the first time, the elite racing American Quarter Horses from around the world that gather for the Bank of America Challenge Championships will step onto that stage in the state of Indiana, as Indiana Grand Racing & Casino in Shelbyville, Indiana, welcomes the event in 2022.

“We are thrilled to partner with Indiana Grand to host this championship event,” said AQHA Chief Racing Officer Janet VanBebber. “This racetrack and its leadership have welcomed horsemen and promoted American Quarter Horse racing, and we look forward to the opportunity to host the 2022 Bank of America Challenge Championships at a new and growing venue.”

Indiana Grand will become one of only 10 racetracks in history to host the Bank of America Challenge Championships. The program, operated by the American Quarter Horse Association, provides greater opportunity to all racing American Quarter Horses. It offers stakes races held in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, and the horses that qualify through these races are invited to the season-ending Challenge Championships. There are races offered for older horses, fillies and mares, derby and futurity horses, as well as distance specialists. The program pours almost $3 million in purses into the industry every year.

In the past two years, five of the AQHA racing champions earned their championship titles with significant help from the horses' efforts in the Challenge program, with these collective horses earning more than 20 percent of their career earnings from Challenge races.

Indiana Grand has seen its product grow year-over-year, with a 5.3 percent increase in purses and a 35 percent jump in handle in the past five years. The track had the fifth-highest average handle per race for all Quarter Horse tracks in the country at $110,819.

In 2021, the racetrack will add two regional Bank of America Challenge stakes races to its program, including the $30,000-added John Deere Indiana Juvenile Challenge and the $20,000-added Merial Indiana Distaff Challenge.

“Being able to expand our American Quarter Horse program to include the Bank of America Challenge elevates our entire racing operations in Indiana,” said Eric Halstrom, Indiana Grand vice president and general manager of racing. “This challenge will shine a spotlight on our ever-growing American Quarter Horse industry and grant many of our local horsemen the opportunity to participate on a national level. We are excited to partner with AQHA on this endeavor and look forward to welcoming new American Quarter Horse participants and fans into Indiana for the first time in the history of the Challenge.”

To learn more about the Bank of America Racing Challenge, visit www.aqha.com/bank-of-america-racing-challenge.

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