SHAKOPEE, MN – The biggest night of turf racing at Canterbury Park takes place tonight with the Mystic Lake Northern Stars Turf Festival.  The Festival features six stakes races, five on turf, with purses totaling $610,000 and featuring the $150,000 Mystic Lake Derby.

Several trainers are once again shipping in contenders to try and take the lion’s share of the purses.  A summary of their recent Canterbury shipping success can be found here.

We’ll tackle each race in order, starting in race three.

$100,000 Curtis Sampson Oaks – 1 Mile Turf

The only confirmed turfer in the field is also the 9/5 morning line favorite, Saranya. This is her first start since a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Appalachian at Keeneland.  She’ll retain the services of Florent Geroux and is sent north by Belmont Stakes winning trainer Brad Cox.

Post nine, with the short run into the first turn, isn’t necessary ideal, but she also isn’t a need the lead type.  Should the speed inside of her get off quickly, there should be room for Geroux to negotiate a trip and not be carried wide through the turn. The biggest issue: there isn’t a ton of speed.

Ricardo Santana should be angling for the same type of trip that Geroux wants to get, but is four stalls inside of her rival.  The Mike Maker charge was beaten soundly by Orbs Baby Girl in the Pennsylvania Oaks over the dirt at Penn National, but heads back to the turf for the Sampson and will also be looking for some pace to run at late.

Spritz could provide the desired pace, despite a trouncing in the Grade 2 Black Eyed Susan last out.  In her prior starts to the Susan, she set the fractions in her maiden breaker and the Bourbonette Oaks at Turfway.  This will be her first start over the grass, but if she can take to the sod, she’s talented enough to take them gate to wire if the longshot to her inside, Pretty in Pink, doesn’t take it to her early.

$100,000 Dark Star Turf Sprint – 5 Furlongs Turf

• 

Robertino Diodoro’s speedy Drena’s Star is the 2-1 morning line favorite for the Dark Star.  He’s coming in off a victory in the off the turf Honor the Hero and has three wins in five 2021 starts.  However none of those are on the turf and he’s one for four in his career on the lawn.

Trainer Kerri Raven claimed Chess Master for $32,000 and Tampa and promptly reeled off two consecutive allowance wins before heading north and into the teeth of the talented field in the Grade 2 Shakertown at Keeneland.  He bounced back very well in his only Canterbury trip last out, taking a $20,000 optional claimer in track record time for the “about” five-furlong distance.

Wellabled, makes the trip from Chicago for trainer Larry Rivelli and brings along jockey Jareth Loveberry who rode Wellabled to a five-furlong track record in the 2020 Honor the Hero Stakes. He’ll be starting on the far outside (post 8) which is a little tough for five furlongs unless he can clear and get over before the turn.

Bookending Wellabled is High Crime who just couldn’t hold on in the five-furlong Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint (Grade 3) back in February.  Well beaten in the Grade 2 Shakertown and an even fifth in the Mighty Beau stakes, a repeat of the Gulfstream race makes this race a winnable one for the connections.

$60,000 MTA Stallion Auction Stakes – 6 ½ Furlongs Dirt

A bit of a palette cleanser in the midst of the turf races, the MTA Stallion Auction stakes is open to any three-year-old progeny of stallions whose seasons were sold in the 2017 stallion auction.

The standout in this field is the Michael Grossman homebred, Star of the North.  The filly has won four in a row going back to last season when she took the Northern Lights Debutante in a romp.  Kicking off this year, as progeny of the Texas stallion, The Hunk, she was able to run in a pair of restricted stakes at Sam Houston, winning them both easily. Today she throws in with the boys and her main rival appears to be stablemate Just Chillin.

Just Chillin has been running in state bred company in Oklahoma, breaking his maiden there earlier this year and following that up with a 3^rd place finish in the Will Rogers Stakes.  Also one to show speed, the duo could cause problems for the connections should they hook up early.

$100,000 The Lady Canterbury – 1 Mile Turf

Best Kept Secret, a winner in her only Canterbury turf try last season, should be looking to take the field gate to wire under Kelsi Harr.  The front running mare scored last out in the off the turf MN HBPA Distaff, but she can handle the turf as well, winning a pair out of three starts.

She’ll have to contend with the morning line favorite on her outside, Evil Lyn. Claimed for $40,000 byn Maker in May of 2020, he moved her into stakes company immediately and she’s responded well.  She was fourth in the Grade 2 Appalachian, third in the Indian Grand and won the Hilltop at Pimlico while concluding the 2020 campaign just missing in the Pago Hop at the Fairgrounds. She heads into the Lady Canterbury after a hard charging third in an $80,000 optional claimer at Churchill with a field best last race Beyer Speed Figure of 88.

Local owner Winchester Place Thoroughbreds has a pair of entries in the race, Princess Causeway and Urban Fairytale.  Princess Causeway will be making her 2021 debut and has been prepping at Keeneland where she had a final work of 59.3 from the gate on June 16 to earn her the bullet for the day.

Urban Fairytale has had a pair of allowance tries in Kentucky to get ready for the race.  Her one trip over the local strip was a second-place finish in last year’s Northbound Pride Oaks.  Both Winchester Place challengers are trained by Ian Wilkes.

Another local hopeful is Beach Flower, trained by Mac Robertson and ridden by Dean Butler, Beach Flower was fourth in this race last year and owns a pair of wins over the Canterbury turf in eleven starts.

$100,000 Mystic Lake Mile – 1 Mile Turf

• 

• 

• 

Tut’s Revenge, the defending champion, is back for trainer Clinton Stuart and will again team with Roimes Chirinos.  The speedy gelding will be out quick, where he does his best work, and try and play catch me if you can.

Giant Payday played that game last year and just couldn’t get there, missing by a head.  He made his seasonal debut in the off the turf Brooks Fields and ran a flat fourth.

The winner of that Brooks Fields, Lord Dragon, is breaking from post position two, but doesn’t have near the turf form as some of the others in here.

The morning line favorite is Maker trainee Parlor.  The solid turfer was claimed for $80,000 at the end of the 2019 season and in 2020 became graded stakes placed and nearly won, nipped by a nose, in the Markers Mark Mile at Keeneland.  He made his 2021 debut at Churchill in the Douglas Park Stakes where he finished a slightly tiring fifth.  He cuts back from a mile and a sixteenth here in the Mile and gets the services of Ricardo Santana.

Last year’s Mystic Lake Derby winner, Summer Assault, is back to contend the Mile and has yet to win in three 2021 starts.

Hieronymus, the beaten favorite in the off the turf Brooks Fields in May, is back for the Mile.  Though beaten by Lord Dragon and Tut’s Revenge in the Brooks Fields, Hieronymus is back on his favorite surface and Brad Cox sends up Florent Geroux to take the mount.

$150,000 Mystic Lake Derby 1 Mile Turf

Cox and Geroux team up with the morning line favorite for the Derby, T D Dance.  T D Dance is coming in off a pair of cruising victories in a Fairgrounds optional claiming and Pimlico’s J W Murphy stakes.  A neck away from being four for five on his career, T D Dance will be the one to beat in the Derby.

Maker ships up graded stakes winning Chess’s Dream, winner of the Grade 3 Kitten’s Joy earlier this year.  The colt may have a class edge over the more lightly raced T D Dance and will be running hard late.  His third last out in the Grade 3 Penn Mile was over a sloppy Penn National main track.  The weather is forecasted to be warm and clear, so no concerns for the connections about track conditions for the Derby.

Trainer Valorie Lund sends out Bodenheimer, stretching out to a mile for the first time in his career, will be sent to the lead to try and take this field gate to wire for the locals but should have company from the Larry Rivelli trained King of Miami and Ian Wilkes’ Modern Science (owned by defending Canterbury Park leading owner, Lothenbach Stables).

First post for the Festival is at 5:10 PM with the stakes starting in race three.  To get video analysis of each race, check with Canterbury Park experts on the Canterbury Twitter page: https://twitter.com/CanterburyPark.