SHAKOPEE, MN – Last evening was induction night for the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame Class of 2021. Honorees were gelding A P is Loose, mare Honey’s Sox Appeal, contributor Mary Green and contributors Steve and Dorothy Erban.
Equibase Chart Caller David Miller kicked off the evening with a moving tribute to the Hall of Famers we lost since the last induction ceremonies: Beverly Mjolsness, Curt Sampson, “Big” Jake Mauer and the incomparable Jim Wells.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Rather than get into the particulars for each inductee, we have included a link to the extended bios of each)
First up on the evening was A P is Loose, inducted by fellow Hall of Famer and Canterbury track announcer – and radio voice of the Minnesota Vikings, Paul Allen.
“A P is Loose was a horse that fans really responded to,” said Allen. “He was a winner and had that Vikings connection.”
“I was watching a compilation of Paul’s calls of Adrian Peterson’s touchdowns in his MVP season on YouTube,” said breeder and owner Joel Zamzow, “when A P would break through the line Paul would say ‘And A P is Loose’ and I thought that would be a great name!”
Zamzow made sure to give credit to trainer Mac Robertson, the Hall of Fame conditioner of A P is Loose, and emphasized the family feel of the racetrack as well as breeding and racing in Minnesota.
The first human inductee on the evening was Mary Green, inducted by Minnesota Thoroughbred Association Executive Director, Kay King.
Green hired King 21 years ago to take on the MTA role and has been a mentor and a role model ever since.
“If there was anything that ever needed to be done in Minnesota racing,” said King, “Mary has done it.”
Always one to put the horse first, Green told stories about how her brood mare, La Pompa, stayed with her when she was hurt until help arrived and that she had the first Minnesota bred winner at the track, Millimark.
“I have so many stories,” Green said. “I don’t think that I could finish them all before I die. Here’s a horse crazy six-year-old girl who is now a horse crazy old lady. I have memories from horses that I will cherish the rest of my life.”
Honey’s Sox Appeal retied as the richest Minnesota bred mare in Canterbury history and was inducted into the Hall of Fame by co-breeder Paul Knapper.
After recounting how he and co-breeder and owner Bob Lindgren connected to start breeding racehorse, Knapper said, “We had some luck and some pluck in getting Honey’s Sox Appeal, but no one, and I mean no one, could have managed this mare’s race career better than Bob Lindgren.”
Lindgren, in accepting on behalf of his mare, gave plenty of credit to the folks that developed the horse into a Hall of Famer, trainers Bernell Rhone and Mac Robertson and their teams.
“They really were able to keep her racing for as long as she did,” said Lindgren, “and made her as successful as she was.”
Lindgren went on to credit fellow breeder/owner Scott Rake for bringing the mare to Iowa and assisting on the surgery that cleared up an issue she was having that inhibited her performance and gave her another year of racing and stakes wins.
Randy Sampson took the mic next to induct Steve and Dorothy Erban.
“’Contributor’ could not be more fitting when it comes to Steve and Dorothy,” the track President and CEO said. “Steve formed the Minnesota HBPA and set the tone of horsemen working with the racetrack, rather than an adversarial relationship like it is at many tracks. Much of the architecture you see around the racetrack are Steve’s creations and Festival of Champions Day wouldn’t exist without Steve – and 28 years later, we’re still running it.
“And Dorothy, though she works more behind the scenes, has helped bring so many people into the sport.”
“People often ask me how I got involved in racing,” said Dorothy. “That’s easy – I married into it and I love it!”
Steve regaled the crowd with several behind the scenes stories and finished up with advice applicable for everyone: “You can’t just take. You have to give back.”
To close where we began, with David Miller: “The criteria for the Hall of Fame is ‘did the person or horse contribute to Canterbury’s greatness?’”
Yes. Yes they did.
