SHAKOPEE, MN – The 2023 live racing season concludes tonight at Canterbury Park with a 13 race card that includes a pair of stakes: The Tom Metzen HBPA Sprint and the Shakopee Juvenile.
The Juvenile has produced several national stakes winners including Amy’s Challenge (2017), Even Thunder (2016) and 2023 Kentucky Derby runner up and graded stakes winner Two Phil’s (2022).
Of the eleven editions of the Shakopee Juvenile, Mac Robertson has trained five winners while Robertino Diodoro has trained three, including the dead heat of Native American and Grand Full Moon in 2014.
While Diodoro has no entrants this year, Robertson has a pair. Bourbon Aficionado will break from the rail and 2-1 Morning Line favorite, Xtreme Smoke Show, will break from post six in the seven-horse field. Xtreme Smoke Show is the only filly in the field.
Trainer Tim Padilla also has a pair of entrants, both wheeling back a week after the Northern Lights Futurity. General Battle Axe was second in that race while Outofthedark was fifth. Outofthedark will don blinkers for the first time in the Juvenile. Both were bred or co-bred by Pete Mattson who also has the favorite in the Metzen.
Doctor Oscar has dominated his last two races on dirt, going gate to wire in both, and earning Beyer Speed Figured of 105 and 95 respectively. He also will be coming back in a week after his 9-length victory in the Minnesota Sprint.
It’s hard to imagine that Doctor Oscar will dominate this field in that fashion.
Robertson brings in Sir Wellington from the east coast to contest the Metzen, coming in off a 4th place finish in the $148,000 DeFrancis Memorial at Laurel. The front running Crocodile Tears and Robertson’s other entry, Plane Talk, ought to provide company for Doctor Oscar early and he’ll need to fend off Sir Wellington who should be right off that early pace.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The path for Doctor Oscar got easier this morning as Sir Welling was listed on the scratch sheet. Though Doctor Oscar should still have company on the front end, no horse the caliber of Sir Wellington will be coming late. Potentially Exxel, coming in off a long layoff for Valorie Lund, could take that role, but it’s a lot to expect the horse to be in too shape having been off since early May, despite a sharp four furlong work on September 9.
Average field size for the 13 races that include five turf races and eight on the main track is 10.23, a significant increase compared to the season per race average of 6.52 horses per race and last year’s average of 7.28. The five turf races, races 1,2,4,6 and 7, allow for a special All-Turf Pick 5 wager with a 50-cent base and an industry low 10 percent takeout. There will be three additional Pick 5s with that takeout rate on consecutive races beginning in races 3, 6 and 9. The card also begins with a Pick 4 carryover of $32,160 which also carries a 10% takeout.
Post time for the first race is 4 PM CT with the pair of stakes the 8th and 9th races on the card.,
REVAK ELECTED MN HBPA PRESIDENT
Owner Justin Revak was recently elected as President of the Minnesota HBPA. Revak takes over from Pete Mattson and is joined in leadership with co-Vice Presidents, trainer Tony Rengstorf and owner/breeder Claudia Goebel
