SHAKOPEE, MN – It was quite the end of the season at Canterbury Park Saturday night as a series of events contributed to closing night being called off after 3 races due to unsafe track conditions, despite no rain having fallen in Shakopee since the day before.

There was training on the track in the morning and with several hours available until post time, it was felt that the track could be dried out in time for racing.

“There was no sun and not much wind all day,” said Senior Director of Racing Chris Merz. “The temperature never warmed so the moisture just sat there. The jocks said that it was a little slippery underneath the main track. I guarantee if it was 75 degrees and sunny we wouldn’t have had this problem.”

“Prior to the race day the riders were out and checking the racing surface,” said Minnesota Chief Steward Randy Blaseg. “At that time, they were indecisive on the best decision to make. After riding the races that they did, they determined that it was unsafe. While everyone has an opinion, they are the folks riding on it and it’s their health and lives that they’re looking out for.”

There was an initial decision after race two to go ahead and move the remaining dirt races to the turf, but that was abandoned after race three.

“We had hoped that we could get as many races as we could in by moving the card to the turf,” said Blaseg.

That decision resulted in the rare designation of “MAIN TRACK: OFF.”

After the riders got back from race three, they reported that the turf course was getting slippery as well, so the decision was made to cancel the rest of the card.

“We never want to cancel,” said leading rider Harry Hernandez. “We tried but the track was just a mess. It was too dangerous.”

“While this will have a significant impact on the end of the meet, the important thing is the safety of the horses and rider,” said Merz. “We had a $2 million handle night on Wednesday and were trending that was again tonight.”

“The silver lining is that it goes to show when you put things all together, give the people good racing, it works out,” added Blaseg, speaking to the large field size and competitive races of the last few nights. “You can’t blame riders for looking out for their safety. The average individual doesn’t know what it’s like to ride a horse at full speed with unsteady ground underneath.”

“There will be a lot of second guessing all around,” said Merz, “but we’ll go back and take a look at our protocols and make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”