SHAKOPEE, MN – It will be warm and sunny with low humidity for the latest edition of the Northern Star Turf Festival at Canterbury tonight.  Six stakes races, five on the turf with a trio of 10% takeout horizontal wagers gets underway at 5 PM tonight with the stakes starting in race three.

Here are the changes in the stakes races:

Race 3 – $100,000 Curtis Sampson Oaks

7 – Morgs World

Race 4 – $100,000 Dark Star Turf Sprint

9 – Tiger Dad

10 – R Mercedes Boy

14 – College Party

15 – Bodenheimer

Race 5 – $60,000 MTA Stallion Auction Stakes

5 – Queenscallo

Race 6 – $100,000 Lady Canterbury Stakes

10 – Youens

12 – Ready to Runaway

Race 7 – $100,000 Mystic Lake Mile

4 – Two Emmys

Race 8 – $150,000 Mystic Lake Derby

3 – Slim Slow Slider

There are plenty of sources to get handicapping info from (you can start here on the Canterbury website) so we’re just going to present some general story lines to keep an eye on:

Will shippers continue to dominate the Lady Canterbury?

Throughout its history, the Lady Canterbury has been kind to shippers, especially over the last dozen years with Michael Stidham winning three, Michael Maker taking four with Ian Wilkes and Chris Block adding one each.  Mac Robertson was able to uphold local pride in 2019 with Beach Flower, who will also be contesting this year’s contest.

Maker has another contender in last year’s Sampson Oaks runner up, Amalfi Princess (9/2 ML), but she’ll have to better her conqueror in the Oaks, Saranya (7/2) and leading owner Lothenbach Stables’ She Can’t Sing (5/2 ML favorite).

Speaking of Maker…

In addition to winning the Lady Canterbury five times, he also won back to back (2019/2020) Mystic Lake Derbies as well as the 2020 Northbound Pride Oaks (now the Curtis Sampson Oaks).

Maker has contenders in the Oaks (Schlofmitz, 3-1), the Dark Star (Xy Speed, 4-1) and the Lady Canterbury (Amalfi Princess, 9/2).

Locals v Shippers

In the three runnings of the Dark Star, only locals have won: Dan McFarlane, Valorie Lund and David Van Winkle.  Van Winkle also has a recent Oaks win to his credit (2019 with Beach Getaway) as well as a pair of recent MTA Stallion Auction Stakes winners.  Mac Robertson has recent Oaks (2017 – Hotshot Anna) and Lady Canterbury (2019 – Beach Flower) wins.

Local trainers have never won a Mystic Lake Derby with shippers winning all 10 runnings.  Local contenders this year are Van Winkles’s Ben Malice, part of the loaded Pete Mattson stable of home breds and Robertson’s Xavey Dave, owned and bred by the late Warren Bush.  Both are not only locally based, but are also Minnesota breds.

Jockeyas

Locally based jocks have done very well over the years but this year there is a larger flow of jockeys coming up to ride.  Florent Geroux (who won two last year) is back on contenders this year for Brad Cox and Greg Foley.  Other visiting jocks up with a shot this year include Javier Castellano, Adam Beschizza, E.T. Baird, Rey Gutierrez and former local pilot Jareth Loveberry.

It will be interesting to see how Harry Hernandez, Llindey Wade, Roimes Chirinos, the Fuentos brothers et al will fare against the invasion.

There are three 10% takeout horizontal wagers on the card tonight.  The Post Time Pick Four (races 1 – 4), The all turf stakes pick five (races 3,4,6,7,8) and the final five races on the card (races 6-10) are all 10% wagers.

First post is 5:10 PM.