Tag Archives: Canterbury Racing Club

MJ is A-OK!

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MARYJEAN surging to the lead!

MARYJEAN surging to the lead!

Congratulations!!!

The Club kicked off in style this season by winning it’s initial outing (I like this tradition we’ve started!!)!

MARYJEAN, under Alex Canchari, passed HOLLYWOOD KNOCKOUT in deep stretch to bring us to 1-0 an the season. She was very well placed throughout and once Alex got her to change leads mid-stretch, she was really able to dig in and get passed her rival. Keep in mind that HOLLYWOOD KNOCKOUT has hit the board in several allowance races at Remington and Prairie Meadows, so this win was even more impressive to me than just beating a bunch of $10,000 claimers.

She came back to the barn and cooled out just fine though you never really know for a day or two after a race how well they came back. Clay told me he’d call me if he had to but that no news is good news – so let’s hope for the silent treatment for the next day or so.

Thanks and kudos go out to Alex, Clay, Juan and the rest of “Team Brinson” to get the job done for us!

MJ full of confidence in the walking ring

MJ full of confidence in the walking ring

Winners’ Circle photos will be available from Saturday forward at the gift shop on the first floor just inside from the paddock. We will have an initial run of 40 there at $10 each. Once those are sold out you can order one there and pick it up in about two racing days by bringing in your receipt and ID.

The Winners’ Circle was a bit more crazy than usual this time and we’re going to work on having the next one taken on the racetrack so it’s not as confining for the people and the horse – providing we’re fortunate enough to get there again.

Congratulations again, folks, enjoy!!

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Paddock Groups

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Given the sheer size of the racing Club, the last few years we have split the group into several smaller groups and rotated paddock access. There have been a few requests to start at another point rather than the front of the alphabet, so this year I split the group into five and then drew a number out of a hat to see which group would lead us off. This year, Group 3 will be the initial group and then we’ll follow with Group 4, Group 5, Group 1, Group 2 for each consecutive start.

We’d like to limit paddock access to Club members +1. It gets very dangerous for people and horses when large numbers of people are in the paddock. Twice last year there were near incidents (thankfully not while we were in there and no one got hurt) with one Quarter Horse nearly scampering through the center of the walking ring and one Thoroughbred actually getting loose and breaking through the fence before being corralled. Both could have been disastrous.

Some guidelines for the paddock:

– If the horses are already walking in the walking ring you are too late. Do NOT enter the paddock once the horses have come out from the saddling area.

– When in the paddock, try to be near the number that corresponds with our horse and fill in behind the number toward the center of the paddock. Other folks wants to be with their horses as well so we don’t want to overflow into their spots.

– Stay several feet back from the dirt walking ring in the grass area. Crowding near the jockey and trainer could create a situation where the horses get spooked.

– Be aware! It’s an exciting place to be but just be aware of your surroundings and what is going on. Just in case!

Heather is working with Coady Photography to try and come up with a plan for Winners’ Circle photos if we’re lucky enough to win a race. Last year the Circle got a little crazy and the potential for someone to get hurt is very real. I hope to announce a plan on Saturday – just in case we run and get lucky on Sunday!

Here are the groups:

GROUP 1 – Allen – Debele
GROUP 2 – Degen – Hennis
GROUP 3 – Herold – Manson
GROUP 4 – Martell – Scheper
GROUP 5 – Schneidermann – Ziegler

Remember: we’ll be starting with GROUP 3 on Sunday (if the race goes and we run!).

Ten Days Left!

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This is just a brief reminder post: we are closing the Club earlier than in the past in order to give Clay and I some additional time to find horses. The closing date is FEBRUARY 28, so if you’ve been putting off sending in your form and check, tarry no longer – DON’T GET SHUT OUT!

We want to have you on board and don’t want to turn anyone away if we can help it, but once the deadline passes our hands are tied.

Check out the previous post to see the link to the sign up form and the 2014 Club specifics.

See you at the track!

Welcome to the 2014 Club!

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Welcome to the 2014 Club. For those of you that have been members last year, this is old hat to you, but I wanted to do a bit of an introduction to folks that are coming aboard for the first time – or coming to this blog just thinking about joining us and wondering what we’re all about.

The Club was designed, and still is about, teaching our members the ins and outs of campaigning a race horse. We try to pull back the curtain a bit on this game and give you the opportunity to learn while minimizing the risk. Maybe you want to learn a bit before you buy a horse of your own? Or join a small partnership? Or perhaps you are happy just having a horse to root for? Whatever the reason, you’re all welcome here and we try to make the Club as fun, exciting and educational as we can.

For $250, Club members receive:

– Admission for the 2014 racing season
– Rotating access to the paddock before races
– Winners’ Circle access should we be fortunate enough to win a race or two
– We also try to have a special location to watch the races from as a group when we run

We will be closing the Club to member on February 28 this year. In the past we have gone as far as the end of March, but it becomes very hard to find the right horse when you only have a few weeks. We will claim a horse or two with Clay Brinson and then run them during 2014. At the end of the year, if the horse(s) don’t get claimed, we will negotiate a sale for them and the Club will close on December 31. More information will follow in the coming weeks as we gather members and start to get a feel for how many horses we will run this year. We’ll discuss strategies for claiming and race placement, racing terminology, condition books and any other topics that come up in the course of the season.

Please feel free to comment with any questions you may have. The odds are pretty good that if you have a question, someone else in the group is thinking about the same thing. If you feel a bit uncomfortable putting yourself out there, then feel free to email me at ted@grevelisracing.com and I’ll shoot you a note back or design a post around your question if it seems to have mass appeal.

If you’ve been a member for a few years, it may seem like some topics are being repeated, but don’t forget, this is supposed to be a learning experience so please be patient. I know that I’ve been around this game for a long time and I learn something new with every season. Every season, every horse, brings something new and different and should provide us with some exciting and interesting moments.

Memberships are now being accepted for the 2014 Club. If you have been involved previously, welcome back – you obviously enjoyed your experience so bring a friend or two along this year? The more members we can get this season, the more horses we’ll be able to run so the more frequently we’ll be at the races watching our horses run!

Payment can be made by credit card, cash, or check made to Canterbury Park. You’re always welcome to contact me directly (ted@grevelisracing.com) but the easiest way to sign up is to please contact Jeff Maday at 952.496.6408 or jmaday@canterburypark.com to make payment arrangements.

Canterbury Park
c/o Jeff Maday
1100 Canterbury Road
Shakopee, MN 55379

See you at The Park!

2014 Horse_ Ownership_Club_Membership_Agreement

And We’re Off…2014 Style

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Those of you already in the Club got the email yesterday, for those of you following along on the blog – here we go, we’re launching the 2014 Canterbury Racing Club and we’d love to have you!

A quick rundown for folks unfamiliar with how the Club operates:

Members will pay $250 to join the Club. There are no additional fees and the only additional expense will be if we are fortunate enough to get into the Winners’ Circle, there will be small charge for a photo.

The Club ends at the end of 2014 or when we have sold off our horses. As an example, last year we closed in November because our last horse was claimed then and it made no sense to claim a horse for only a few weeks.

Members get admission to Canterbury Park for the season as well as, if available, a special location to watch the races, rotating paddock access and – again, if we’re lucky – access to the Winners’ Circle. We will conduct a few backstretch tours during the season as well so we can visit the barns and get a glimpse at life on the backside.

You get to follow YOUR horse(s) during the year!

A couple of changes from last year’s club: earlier closing date and Winners Circle photos.

CLOSING DATE

We will be closing the membership on February 28, 2014. Last year we literally were down to the final day of the Hawthorne meet when Ask Eddy was claimed. Of course that turned out well but it is tough to get into a spot where you ‘have to’ claim a horse. The number of horses the Club will own will depend upon the number of members: the more members, the better chance we have of having multiple horses.

PHOTOS

Because there were a large number of pictures unclaimed we will be using the following procedure:

– A limited number of Winners Circle photos will be available at the gift shop as soon as we can get them printed. Similar to past years it will probably take a couple of days to get them there.

– There will be a $10 charge per photo. The list price of a single photo is $25 so we will heavily subsidize the purchase price.

– When the initial supply is exhausted, you can purchase a picture at the gift shop in advance and your name will go on a list. We will hope to have the additional pictures available by the second racing day after ordering and you can pick them up then.

In this way we will eliminate the waste of purchasing photos that are never claimed and that money can stay within the Club. I hope that we have plenty of photos to worry about this year! Heather Frisbie (heather@grevelisracing.com) will be coordinating photos as well as taking more photos of her own for us this year.

I already spoke to Clay Brinson and he is excited to be on board again this season and is very happy that we’ll have an additional 4 weeks to claim a horse, allowing us to be a bit more discriminating.

For those of you rejoining, check your inbox. Jeff has sent out an email to all of you with the instructions on rolling over your membership. For those of you that will be new this year, click on the agreement below to read the details.

Payment can be made by credit card, cash, or check made to Canterbury Park. You’re always welcome to contact me directly (ted@grevelisracing.com) but the easiest way to sign up is to please contact Jeff Maday at 952.496.6408 or jmaday@canterburypark.com to make payment arrangements.

Canterbury Park
c/o Jeff Maday
1100 Canterbury Road
Shakopee, MN 55379

See you at The Park!

2014 Horse_ Ownership_Club_Membership_Agreement

EDDY’s First Hawthorne Start for Us

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ASK EDDY will be making his first start for us away from “home”. Thankfully he has run (and won) at Hawthorne before and we know that he’s been training very well there and appears to be fully recovered from his traumatic last race.

Here’s a breakdown of the field:

1 – Sunday Saint (Retana/Bryant) – Winner of his last, it did come at the lowly $3200 level down at Fairmont Park and scored at nearly 12-1.

2 – Don’t Bluff (Berndt/Martinez) – Claimed from the Robertson barn at CBY in a disappointing last race where he finished 4th (a length and a half in front of EDDY) after being very competitive at $7500. Interesting that Alex chose EDDY this time after riding this one last out.

3 – ASK EDDY (BRINSON/CANCHARI)

4 – Izzy Golden (Cowan/Roman) – A stalking winner last out at Arlington at this level, this is his first time racing on dirt since April (which, unfortunately for us, was a win at Hawthorne). He is deservingly the morning line favorite.

5 – Geocache (H Robertson/Thornton) – Finished 3rd in EDDY’s last race then came down to Arlington where he led half way through this level race before yielding, finishing 5th, but only beaten by 3.
6 – Vow to Wager (Childers/Rivero) – Not a lot to recommend since the claim. Don’t know if it was the change from Lone Star or the new barn, but the horse was severely outclassed twice before finishing 4th in his last, a $4000 claiming event at Fairmont.

7 – Quiet Rebel (Dezeo/Rose) – Hasn’t shown a lot in the Chicagoland area except for his maiden breaker but reeled off 3 in a row at Farimont before taking a few months off. Now he reappears up north with a desire to be on the front end and time to prove if his downstate form was unique to Fairmont or if he’s turned a corner.

8 – Awesome Rules (Butler/Slinger) – Possessed of 4 wins and 5 seconds in 14 starts this year, this guy has been very consistent, though another that seems to have shown his best stuff in the south.

The closest thing to a “monster” in this race is IZZY GOLDEN. He won last out at the more difficult Arlington Park meet and has earned Beyer Speed Figures in the 70s in his last 3 races – 2 in the significantly more difficult starter allowance level races. And what looks to be a question mark: him running on the artificial and turf there; is discounted significantly by his last start on the real dirt at Hawthorne where he won in wire to wire fashion over a field like this back in April and the 7-year old gelding has won three straight at $5000.

However it’s not like EDDY is without hope here. If he’s fully recovered from his last race (and every indication is that he is) he is going to be tough now that he’s rejoined with Alex, who seems to get the best out of him. There is also other speed in the race, as well, that could challenge IZZY and help set things up for our boy’s late charge.

His 4-1 morning line odds appear to be fair and I think we’ll get a real honest read on him this afternoon.
Good luck everybody!!

Canterbury Closes; EDDY Moves to Chicago

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As the 2013 season sets on Canterbury Park, our ASK EDDY is resting in the Brinson barn before heading out to Chicago to take on horses at Hawthorne Park.

EDDY came back from the race a little uneven. Juan noticed that he was coughing pretty good so Clay order a scope to determine if there were any breathing issues. As it turns out, EDDY had bled through his Lasix during the race and, on a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being the worst, EDDY’s bleeding was a six.

This doesn’t mean that EDDY is through, only that adjustments are going to need to be made for him. It also means that he showed a lot of grit, heart and determination to close the way he did under the duress he must have been under.

After some rest, EDDY’s Lasix does will be upped and he will be equipped with a figure eight bridle as well as a tongue tie to help him breathe. There are a several types of adjunct medications to go with the Lasix as well that Clay and the vet will go over to see what will be best. There is no reason that EDDY won’t be as good as new – or at least as he was!

I wish we could have won more and I especially wish that MUNDY would have worked out better than she did, but I thoroughly enjoyed working with you all live this summer and I hope that we have the opportunity to do it again next year – at least for those of you that decide to come back and not form your on groups, go out on your own or join existing partnerships (and I know someone that can help you with that!). As always, feel free to contact me at ted@grevelisracing.com with any questions that you have – about the Club or racing in general – and I’ll do what I can to answer you.

The work doesn’t end here, however. I will be working on getting our group licensed in Illinois over the next couple of weeks and we will have more races to run before the 2013 Canterbury Race Club draws to a close.

EDDY Video & Pics; No Races This Weekend; Tours Start Sunday

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A lot to cover today!

EDDY

Below is some video that Michelle Benson put together along with some still shots of EDDY going over to the track to gallop yesterday. Clay said our boy is feeling very good and we’re looking to enter him as soon as possible. We tried yesterday in an open $5000 claiming race but it only drew 3 entries so that didn’t go. We may be looking at a $6,250 or maybe even a $7,00 claiming race. Another possibility is to enter EDDY in a $7500 turf race but as an “Also Eligible” for the “Main Track Only”. This puts us in a position to get into the race should it be called off the turf and several horses scratch.

MUNDY

Though doing well, Clay wanted to give MUNDY another week or so before her next race. Her better efforts seemed to have been off of longer breaks and 2 weeks just didn’t seem to agree with her.

TOURS

The backside tour dates have been set. Each tour will be limited to 75 people. We will split you up into 3 groups of 25 and we will check out the Administration building, the trainer’s stand/workouts and the pool before gathering outside of Clay’s barn where either EDDY or MUNDY will be led out and Clay will be available to answer questions. There is too much activity and too many people to get through the barn but Clay will have one of the groom’s bring out a horse so we can take some pictures.

We will meet at 9:45 at the backside gate. Jeff, Jilique and I will me you there and escort you in. The tour is a walking tour and the distance traveled and amount of standing will be considerable so please keep this in mind when rsvp-ing. I would anticipate the tours lasting about 90-minutes or so. The dates are:

THIS Sunday, July 28th and;
Sunday, August 11

We are also looking at one large group event one of the last weekends of the meet in the morning on the frontside leading into the raceday.

Email me at ted@grevelisracing.com to rsvp. Should we “oversubscribe” one of the dates, we will use the time stamp on the email as the divider.

Video Credit: MICHELLE BENSON

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Photo credits: MICHELLE BENSON

April – June Financial Statement

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CBY RC Running Financials Apr – June 13

If you click above you can access the spreadsheet with the financials for the first three months. Much of it is self explanatory, but here is a rundown from top to bottom, keeping in mind that we NOT seen the vet bills yet but I wanted to get this up once we got Clay’s June bill:

The top portion is income.

Initial Deposits – The money of all the members
Purse Money – Income from purses
Claim/purchase money – money we will receive from a claim or sale of a horse

The rest of the sheet are expenses – which is about the right proportion for this game sometimes.

Claiming – the claiming price of the horse
Training – the training portion of the bill or ‘day rate’
Farrier – getting the horse’s feet trimmed and shod
Vet Bills – veterinary care
Jockey Fees – the amount of money received by the jockey for a non-winning mount. In this is case Juan Rivera received $115
Management Fees – $200 a month to the club management company
Trainer Purse % – trainer receives 10% of a horse that comes in 1st 2nd or 3rd. This month, with EDDY’s win and MUNDY’s 3rd, Clay received $771
Jockey Purse % – jockey receives 10% of a winning ride. This is in lieu of a regular jockey fee, not in conjunction with one. In this case, Alex received $540
Management % – the management company receives 5% of any 1st, 2nd or 3rd purse money. In this month, the 1st & 3rd place finishes netted the company $385
Transportation – $300 for transporting EDDY from Chicago to here
Pony to Post – for each race, each starter receives a pony to accompany them to the post. The fee for this is $25 per race.
Licensing – The group, Canterbury Racing Club 2013, needs to be licensed with the Minnesota Racing Commission
Equine Retirement – $2 per start is set aside for equine retirement groups. AT the end of the season, Canterbury Park matches the money collected and it is split among several area groups that help ex-race horses transition to retirement
Groom Bonus – A $50 bonus to the groom of the winning horse.

Running Total – a running total of the amount of group funds
Monthly Total – the total of money won/(lost) for the month