SHAKOPEE, MN – The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s horse racing handicapper and columnist, Johnny Love, announced his retirement this week.
Love, whose picks have run in the Star Tribune for the last decade, offered up daily selections for Canterbury Park in addition to penning columns on the biggest national races of the year for local handicappers.
“Listen, I loved my 10 years,” Love said. “I never missed a deadline, and I never woke up thinking ‘Crap…I have to write today.’ I just loved doing it. It was a tough decision…but it was time.”
In addition to writing and handicapping for the newspaper, Love would frequently appear on the pre-race show, Today at the Races, with Brian Arrigoni, Paul Allen or Jeff Maday, to preview the day’s racing card for bettors around the country.
In recent years, Love and his family had moved to Arizona but still spent a considerable part of the summer at Canterbury mingling with fans and making selections. Love’s outgoing personality, relatability and uncanny accuracy – especially in horizontal wagers like the pick three and pick four – made him a favorite, not only with bettors, but with owners, trainers and jockeys as well.
The local racing scene will be poorer for Love’s absence not only from a handicapping perspective, but personal as well. Whatever he chooses to do next, his charm, wit, intelligence and personality will make it a success. And just because he’s no longer writing on a daily basis, don’t be so sure that we won’t see Love around the track in the future once travel restrictions ease. Retired from writing doesn’t mean retiring from his love of handicapping and racing.
“I miss Canterbury so much,” said Love. “I miss being with you guys in the press box, and I really miss hanging with the racing fans. After so many years, I still got a kick out of fans carrying the Star Tribune with my selections folded up on top.”
Quarter Horse’s Step Forward This Evening
A full slate of Quarter Horse races are on tap tonight at Canterbury. Twelve races featuring trials for the Canterbury Park Quarter Horse Derby and the Mystic Lake Northlands Futurity will begin at 4:30 PM.
The top three finishers in the Gopher State Derby, Zoomn On Bye, Little Bit of Hero and Tipsy Girl B, respectively, are all back to contest the Derby. The Derby trials are the first two races on the card.
Races three through five are the trials for the Mystic Lake Northlands Futurity. Trainer Jason Olmstead, who has won yet to add the Northlands to his impressive list of Canterbury stakes wins, trains 12 of the twenty four entrants in the three trials.
The winningest Quarter Horse rider in Canterbury history, Nik Goodwin, makes his return to Shakopee tonight as does Jake Olesiak. Kelsi Harr makes her local Quarter Horse debut as well. Harr has been successfully riding Thoroughbreds at the meet all season.
Chrinos Wins Four Monday Evening
Roimes Chirinos, already having an excellent first season at Canterbury, took advantage of the reconfigured jockey colony and reeled off four winners to kick off the week of racing.
Chirinos topped the first Daily Double of the evening as well as capturing races 5 and 9. He split the wins between the current leading trainers at the meet, Mac Robertson and Joel Berndt.
