Thought that we would pass along a link to a rather interesting analysis of trainers and owners that raced during the 2012 racing season at Canterbury Park.
This information is put together by a owner/breeder in Minnesota that likes to look at things a little bit differently. A pretty impressive season for our trainer who ranked third by the metric of earnings per start.
Check out the information by clicking here.
As owners, we didn’t have enough starts to qualify for the owners category. However, if you want to follow along with the chart and the math we earned just a touch over $2,300 per start.
Canterbury Racing Club 
Really really interesting stuff. Thanks for providing the information. Can you tell us how long Astar thoroughbreds has been in business?
That’s a good question. Couldn’t give you a definite answer, but best guess would be between 8-10 years.
Just saw this question. I follow The Canterbury Club and am always rooting for new owners. I started handicapping in Chicago when I was 8 years old, now I’m 60, but only got into the owning, breeding and stallion business seriously in 2004. Dave Astar
Thanks Dave!
Very interesting indeed. I think we did pretty well.
A question I meant to ask earlier relating to the scratch of a horse the day of a race. Who does the scratching? I understand the last minute ones where a horse warms up lame, rears in the gate and cuts itself, etc. and the vet scratches the horse, but how is a scratch done by a trainer earlier in the day? Do they have to give a reason (other than “the horse doesn’t feel like running” or “my horoscope said to stay away from horses”) or can they just scratch if they want to? I didn’t notice a lot of scratches this summer so I wonder what is allowed for a reason. Thanks.
Good question. Scratches are officially done by the stewards (the track’s officials). However, they typically scratch horses based on the advice of the veterinarians.
Every horse is examined the morning of the race by a veterinarian employed by the Minnesota Racing Commission. If a horse fails its basic physical (or has another issue that would prevent it from racing safely) it will be scratched.
There are a couple of other ways that a horse can be scratched: 1) If a horse is entered for the turf and the race comes off the turf, a horse can be scratched without penalty by the trainer. Additionally, sometimes a horse will enter a race but another (typically easier) race will come up after the horse has entered but before it has already run. In certain instances, the racing secretary and stewards will allow a horse to be scratched from the first race to be reentered in a second race.
Typically, a trainer isn’t given the ability to scratch his/her horse without the recommendation of the track veterinarian. Depending on the state and the rules, in many cases, a scratched horse will need to work before a veterinarian to prove it is healthy before it is allowed to return to the races.
I see Great Bam worked out today breezing 4 furlongs in 50.80 and ranked 3/5 of today’s workouts. Looks like Clay has him on his workout pattern and getting ready for the Oct. 6 race at Hawthorne.