SHAKOPEE, MN – Canterbury Park’s 70 day 2018 opened with bright skies and gorgeous weather and immediately ran into rain, wind and cold through most of May. The weather kept fans away and it seemed like every special day on the calendar was met with rain and storms by Mother Nature.
As the summer rolled on, the weather began to cooperate and bettors, mostly off track, began to take notice as well.
While on track handle remained relatively flat (down 0.3%), out of state handle rose 13.9% from $32,263,307 in 2017 to $36,762,832 this season.
“We are quite pleased with our continued growth in off-track handle,” said Senior Director of Operations Andrew Offerman. “In large part, the familiarity [with Canterbury] has improved through strong ADW relationships and targeted promotions with key partners. Additionally, we have worked very closely with TVG to increase our national television exposure, specifically on our weeknight race cards. The HBPA has been very helpful in participating in these endeavors and the result has been positive for all parties.”
“Additionally, the creation of the Mystic Lake Northern Stars Festival in 2018 helped expose our racing to a larger audience this year when we set a single-day All-Sources Handle record for a non-Claiming Crown at $2,068,216,” Offerman continued.
The Mystic Lake Northern Lights Racing Festival was run in conjunction with the Jockeys and Jeans fundraiser for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. The evening consisted of the $200,000 Mystic Lake Derby along with the $100,000 Mystic Lake Mile and Lady Canterbury Stakes in addition to a pair of $50,000 supporting stakes to form an outstanding night of racing and bettors responded.
One of the most impressive rises year over year was in claiming activity. During the 2017 season, 68 horses worth $602,250 were claimed while this season 127 horses were claimed worth $1,269,250, a whopping 110.8% increase. Offerman offered his thoughts on the sharp increase.
“I believe the strong economy meant more people wanted into the game this summer and didn’t necessarily want to spend the time it takes to breed and raise a horse on their own,” Offerman opined.
“The popularity of Allowance Optional Claiming races this season made a strong market for the $12,500 claimers that were running for $30,000 purses,” he continued. “The reduction in some of our claiming prices this season for conditioned claimers I think made the claiming prices more appealing relative to the abilities of the horses running at each level.”
Not everything was up, of course. Following the national trend, Canterbury’s field size was down 5.4% year over year, though at 7.68 horses per field, Canterbury is running a bit ahead of the national average of 7.5 (through August 2018). Attendance was also down, albeit very slightly, -1.2% or 79 patrons per evening. If Belmont Day had come up sunny and dry rather than cold and rainy, that alone could have made up the difference.
While no major changes are on the docket for next year, Canterbury has never shrunk from trying new things so there could be some tweaks to the program next season. One change that will be certain is that there will be a new racing Secretary in Shakopee come May. Current racing secretary Robbie Junk has taken a year round position at Turf Paradise and will not return next season.
“Recruiting and maintaining stables that will allow our average field size to significantly outpace the region will continue to remain the main challenge in the current environment,” said Offerman, looking ahead to 2019.
“That being said, I look forward to the challenge and, in cooperation with the Minnesota HBPA, we will look at a few new wrinkles in 2019 that will help address recruitment difficulties. Furthermore, I have no doubt that the new Racing Secretary will have their own ideas of areas to target, specific horsemen and potential tactics needed to recruit and I look forward to working with that individual to come up with some creative ideas to address this issue.”
