SHAKOPEE, MN – Trainers Clinton Crawford and Jason Olmstead have nine of the ten horses in the gate for the Gopher State Quarter Horse Derby at Canterbury Park this afternoon.  The race is 400 yards and carries a purse of $57,325.

Crawford will have half the field including top qualifier Veuve Clicquot (19.87) who broke her maiden in her trial two weeks ago.  The Pyc Paint Your Wagon filly earned a field and lifetime best speed index of 96 in that effort. She breaks from post three.

Four time Canterbury Park defending champion Quarter Horse trainer Olmstead has four in the field with second and third fastest qualifiers The Bald Eagle (19.91) and One Famous Ocean (19.94).

The Bald Eagle finished a neck behind the top qualifier in their trial in a very game effort.  The Louisiana bred is owned by Tom and Bill Maher and Movin On.  He’ll start from post seven with Julian Serrano on board.

One Famous Ocean dominated her trial and won by 1 3/4 lengths.  The Texas bred is also partially owned by the Mahers along with Summer Run Inc (Paul Leudemann) and the L Team.  The L Team is made up of Canterbury Park announcer Paul Allen and Minnesota Wild goalie Alex Stalock.  One Famous Ocean will be ridden by Ry Eikleberry and will start from post four.

While trainer Jason Pascoe may only have a lone entry this afternoon, Spy for the Senate is the winningest horse in the field, notching four wins in ten starts, and tops the field in earnings with $46,841.  Spy for the Senate closed out his 2018 campaign in Ontario winning the $99,000 (Can) Alex Picov Memorial at Ajax Downs.  Similar to last year he prepped for the season with a pair of starts at Remington Park but stopped at Canterbury this summer instead of heading over the border.  The Oklahoma bred colt breaks from post two which, along with the rail, has been problematic thus far during the Quarter Horse meet.

The Gopher State Derby is the second race on the card with a scheduled post time of 1:19.  Canterbury’s first post this afternoon is 12:50.