Minnesota racing

Despite coming off a record-handle season, Canterbury Park is proposing a 10-day schedule slice and a $45,000 average daily purse cut for 2023. The reductions were made public this week as the Minnesota track faced a Nov. 15 racing commission deadline to apply for next year's dates at the same time it is trying to extend or renegotiate an expiring agreement with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. Since 2012, that deal has provided purse funding in exchange for the track and horsemen not pursuing additional forms of gambling, and it...

While racing seems to be scrambling for any piece of positive public perception it comes across, Sally Jane Mixon has a vision. She wants to save the lives of people across the country, and she wants to do it by bringing them to the backsides of racetracks to work with retired racehorses. "Mental health is a huge crisis right now everywhere you go," Mixon said. "The hope is to bring people who maybe have a bad taste in their mouth for racing and they'll come and work with off-track Thoroughbreds...

Canterbury Park's Vice President Andrew Offerman joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss creating both a fan and a horseplayer-friendly product at their Minnesota-based racetrack.

MTA TO HOST '21 ONLINE STALLION SEASON AUCTION WITH $1K BONUS INCENTIVE PROGRAM The Minnesota Thoroughbred Association (MTA) will conduct its 2021 Stallion Season Auction Jan. 3-11, featuring over 50 stallions from Kentucky, Florida, Oklahoma and Minnesota. The on-line auction will be hosted at www.thoroughlybred.com. A new incentive is also being offered for this year's auction from the Minnesota Breeders' Fund. Breeders who purchase a stallion season through the 2021 MTA Stallion Season Auction with the resultant foal born in Minnesota will receive a $1000 check when the foal is...

Canterbury Park has furloughed approximately 850 employees as a result of their temporary closure due to the coronavirus, and has subjected key personnel to salary reductions, according to a statement from the Canterbury Park Holding Corporation Wednesday. "Since suspending all operations at Canterbury Park on March 16, 2020, we have acted aggressively to preserve cash by reducing our operating expenses, suspending or delaying our 2020 planned capital expenditures, and suspending our quarterly cash dividend," said Randy Sampson, Canterbury Park President and CEO. "The additional actions we are implementing today are...

Steve May of Georgetown, Kentucky, has been appointed by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as the next executive director of the Minnesota Racing Commission. May will assume his new duties in late April, succeeding Tom DiPasquale, who retired in February after serving as director since 2013. "Steve May has had broad background in racing and pari-mutuel operations and is well suited by education and experience to lead the fine commission staff assembled here in Minnesota by his predecessor," said Minnesota Racing Commission chairman Jim Lane. May is the Director of Pari-Mutuel...