If you haven’t heard the news, today Governor Walz indicated to the MRC that Canterbury Park can resume live racing, without fans as long as protocols are in place.
For more detail on that, click here.
That gave us the green light to go ahead and pick up a half interest in two maidens in Nevada Litfin’s barn. In case you missed earlier posts, we decided to take a half interest in a pair and then have Karl buy/claim one as well because of the short meet. This way it will give us interest in 3 horses running and, with any luck at all, we should be running on an average of once a week.
The two horses that we have in the barn now are:
Lilfetheredindian (Shanghai Bobby-Star White-Nauvus) is a bay 3-year old filly with 6 starts under her belt and we’ll be aiming to run her at the lower levels. She should have enough talent to win us a maiden $5000/$10000 claiming and she has a very nice wet track number which, as we know, can be important up here. She ran credibly at Lone Star but had a rough go at Oaklawn. She’s healthy and ready to run.
Furzy (Double Irish-Upland-Harlan’s Holiday) is a grey/roan 3-year old filly who has only started twice in Oaklawn maiden special weights. Neither start was impressive but she was also clearly over her head. She’s been training really well and seems to be the more talented of the girls. Fun fact: the two both have Harlan’s Holiday as a grandfather with him being Lil’s sire’s dad and Furzy’s dam sire. Another with a good wet track number and borderline decent turf number.
Both are here in Minnesota and are in training.
I touched base with Karl and we will be unable to claim at Lone Star because of the “jail rule”. This means a horse claimed at the meet must stay at the racetrack for the remainder of the meet. These rules are designed to keep stock at a racetrack from getting pillaged to run at another racetrack. So he will be on the lookout for a decent private purchase or we will look to claim as quickly as we can up here. Again, given the short time period of the meet, we want to be ready to roll as soon as possible with our third horse.
Below are the lifetime PPs for each filly. We do anticipate them running much better here with significant class relief and, perhaps, a less competitive meet with the big national stables that flocked to Oaklawn otherwise occupied for the summer.
Canterbury Racing Club 
So, do I understand Walz’s declaration? Canterbury will be allowed to open for live racing on June 10. But security will be on hand to stop people from attending the event to watch and bet. The source of income will be people betting from other tracks, not Minnesotans who cannot bet on horses running on Minnesota tracks. Am I correct?
I understand the “break” given the folks who work the backside and moved here with no guarantee there would be any chance of a racing season But although I am happy we are looking into acquiring a couple of horses, where will I get a chance to see them? Or am I missing something?
Thank you
The facility will be closed to patrons to start. This could change during the meet but as of this moment, the facility won’t be open.
Minnesotans, under current law, cannot wager on races conducted in the state.
As of this moment we do not have any backside tours scheduled but, again, that could change over time. We’ll see what we can do as far as virtual tours and, on race day, some ADWs like TVG show Canterbury races and some folks have been able to watch on other ADWs like TwinSpires. Canterbury’s website also has a service for live streaming the races.
If I am able to be there for racing as a member of the media, I will also look to “Facebook Live” the race for everybody.
This is a very unique year and, as the Club manager (but not a Canterbury employee), I’m working with the track to bring as much as we can to you. Unfortunately there’s no history or playbook for this but we’ll keep working at it!
Who is lobbying to get off track betting going during this COVID-19 nightmare? Garry Kroft
Any change has to be done via the legislature. The effort was made but failed.
Here is a brief summary of the action of that bill. This was before final passage but this ended up being what was passed.
http://www.mwpaddockreport.com/bill-in-st-paul-for-racing-relief-moves-on-without-mn-resident-adw-provision/
Heard rumblings a month back that CBY was entertaining the thought of opening the parking lot
to gambling. Re-focusing the internet coverage and there ya go. Next best thing to “being” there.