Extreme race day canterbury park1/1/2024 The people at Canterbury Park know I’m not the only one who feels that way, so that’s why this year on Saturday, July 15th they’re holding their annual Extreme Race Day. I want animals out of an Indiana Jones movie to lope around the track while I look on in amazement, or even giant birds to sprint around the thing while the jockeys riding them desperately grope for a way to hold on to those bodies by Dr. As much as I love the horses, though, I sometimes wish I could watch the slightly more exotic animals race. That passion takes me to Canterbury Park in Shakopee pretty often. There’s no greater feeling in the world than scrutinizing the program before a race, picking the horse with the funniest name, placing some outrageous bet on him like $5 or even $10, and then sitting back smoking a cigar the size of a telephone while I watch him lose so I can move on to my next pick. The thunder of the hooves, the cheers from the audience, the beer served in plastic cups that you can’t smash on the ground out of frustration. Whichever square on the grid the cow “picked” was the winner. That was where they drew a big grid on the grass, fenced it off, and let a cow hang out inside the enclosure until she did that thing cows do whenever they feel like it. And back in the podunk town I grew up in, I never once won at cow bingo in all the years I played it at the Fourth of July fair. When I went to Vegas I got more pleasure out of the fountains outside of the Bellagio than I did losing my money for a hotel room playing the Gilligan’s Island slot machine. When I play poker, I don’t consider it betting so much as I do donating to the other players. Head over to the Canterbury Park YouTube channel to see replays of all the extreme races of the day.I’ve never been much of a gambler. Guess there’s no justice for ostrichplayers, either. The announcer points out that one bird crossed over and there should have been an inquiry. Watch how in this year’s running, two birds lose their riders right out of the gate and a third mid-race: An ostrich will allow humans to saddle them and ride them with a bit, however they are much more difficult to control than horses as I’m sure you can imagine. It is still popular in South Africa these days. Ostrich racing is unusal in the United States today, but it was once a much more common occurence at race tracks as a novelty event between races. One thing Canterbury can boast, however, is that they held the only 20 horse field this year, since Hoppertunity scratched from the Kentucky Derby to make that field 19! Track officials were unhappy with the lopsided dirt victory so they plan to tinker with the race details for next year. The first turf horse to finish ran sixth. The next four finishers were also on the dirt. The winner, 7-1 Joshua’s Journey, was a dirt horse, of course. The different distance was due to track factors and the class of the horses competing on the different surfaces. They also held a race they dubbed the “Battle of the Surfaces.” A field of 20 horses competed at the same time on two different surfaces - eight on the dirt at 1 mile and 12 on the turf at 1 1/16 miles. Between regular thoroughbred horse racing, fans were able to witness a zebra race, a camel race, and an ostrich race - all with jockeys on board! This past Saturday Canterbury held one of the most unusual cards of racing in history. This year Canterbury Park brought back a recent addition to their summer lineup: Extreme Race Day. They’ve been known to be inventive in their quest to bring in new customers - from adding a poker room to running the annual Claiming Crown series for claimer-level horses. has been running a small summer race meet since 1985. (Photo courtesy of Canterbury Park)Ĭanterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn. Battle of the Surfaces at Canterbury Park.
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