Canterbury Park enters a busy eight-day stretch where live horse racing will be conducted on six of those eight days beginning Saturday. That card will feature three turf stakes redrawn after they were cancelled due to extreme heat last weekend. A race date was quickly added for Wednesday, July 2 to make up for some of the races lost when the heat index reached 109 degrees.
“We wanted to add that July 2 date immediately and were granted permission by the Minnesota Racing Commission,” senior manager of racing operations Amber Carlisle said. “That allowed trainers of many of the horses unable to race because of the cancellations to get right back in the races they desired and not lose out on an opportunity to run.” Entries for the nine-race card, seven thoroughbred races and two for quarter horses, were drawn yesterday and attracted 78 horses in all with a 9.3 field size average for the thoroughbred races.
Saturday’s card begins at 5:10 p.m. central and includes the three cancelled $50,000 one-mile turf stakes, the Lady Canterbury, Canterbury Derby and the Brooks Fields Mile. The stakes were re-entered and redrawn with a majority of those previously entered returning, including a pair of shippers from the barn of Larry Rivelli.
Rivelli will saddle Homie, undefeated in two starts yet unraced since Sept. 23, in the Canterbury Derby and Queen Judith, winless in 2025 in four starts after a 17-month absence dating back to a win on July 1, 2023, who will run in the Lady Canterbury. Jareth Loveberry, Canterbury’s leading rider in 2017, returns to the Shakopee, Minn. racetrack to ride both. Loveberry won the Canterbury Derby in 2020 and, aboard a Rivelli trainee, in 2021. He won the Lady Canterbury in 2022.
Minnesota bred Sushi Man remains the morning line favorite in the Canterbury Derby which grew by one 3-year-old to a field of eight after the redraw. Leading rider Harry Hernandez will ride as he did June 11 when Sushi Man wired a Minnesota bred maiden field recording the fastest 7 1/2 furlong time of the meet in a 7 1/4 length victory.
Sunday racing will begin at 1:10 p.m. The Dark Star Turf Sprint Allowance was brought back from last Saturday as well. The five-furlong race includes some of the fastest grass sprinters on the grounds, a majority of which were intended to race last week. A key addition, the Rivelli shipper and 9/5 morning line favorite One Timer, joined the field after re-entry. The 6-year-old is a graded stakes winner with earnings of $1,040,913 in 18 career starts. Loveberry also has that mount.
Wednesday, July 2 racing will begin at 5 p.m. The Thursday, July 3 card begins at 4 p.m. That evening of races, live music and fireworks annually draws the largest crowd of the season often in excess of 15,000. July 4 racing begins at 1 p.m. and July 5 has a 5 p.m. first post.
(info and photos courtesy of Canterbury Park)
