SHAKOPEE, MN – The weather was perfect and a crowd of 14,425 packed Canterbury Park for the annual Extreme Day festivities. In additional to the usual – camels, zebras and ostriches – there were several races that you don’t usually see on regular race days.
The Dash in the Flash was a 110 yard quarter horse race which was followed by the two furlong Spurt in the Dirt for the thoroughbreds. There were races for horses that haven’t hit the board at the meet as well as for horses that haven’t yet won on the turf.
The most popular race each year, however, is the Battle of the Surfaces. It is the combined running of horses on the dirt and turf. The purses and official order of finish for racing purposes are separate but they are combined for betting purposes. The goal in putting the race together is try and get a blanket finish between two surfaces which is done by tweaking distance and class.
This season pit a set of eight $4000 claimers on the dirt against a field of eight $20,000 turfers. The turf race was a mile and 70 yards while the dirt was a mile. In the past, turf dominated with dirt only winning once. This year it was a clean sweep for the dirt with Promising Shoes leading the way.
Enjoy the photos of the day!
CAMELS (winner: Racing office intern Brandon Kewatt)
OSTRICHES (Featuring a Denny Velazquez face plant and Jake Samuels win – last jock riding!)
ZEBRAS (Nakia Ramirez wins the slowest zebra race in history)
BATTLE OF THE SURFACES (Dirt sweeps this year)
