Canterbury Park’s request for shorter horse racing meet in 2025 is approved – Star Tribune

Sports
Canterbury Park will start a week later, end a week earlier and include 51 days of competition, down from 54 in 2024.
By Kevin Bertels
Canterbury Park’s 2025 horse racing meet will begin May 24 under an agreement approved Thursday by the Minnesota Racing Commission.
The Racing Commission approved a 51-day horse racing season in 2025, concluding Sept. 20, as proposed by Canterbury Park. That’s three days shorter than in 2024, with racing starting a week later and ending a week earlier.
Most racing will be on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays; starting times will be 5 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays and 1 p.m. on Sundays. Post times for the final week of live racing will be 4 p.m.
Thursday racing will be scheduled on six dates: July 3, 10 and 24, Aug. 7 and 21 and Sept. 18; it will begin at 5 p.m.
The 2025 schedule will include a nine-day break from racing, from July 14 to July 22.
The shortened schedule was agreed upon by track management and the Minnesota Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, which represents thoroughbred racehorse owners and trainers.
The expiration in December 2022 of a decade-long deal with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is tied to the shorter meet. It led to a large drop in Canterbury’s purse fund in 2023 and to lessened betting interest because of small race fields.
The 2024 meet ticked up, with a 13 percent increase in betting handle and a 13 percent increase in thoroughbred field size over 2023.
Kevin Bertels has led the Minnesota Star Tribune’s high school sports coverage since fall 2021. Before that, he spent 23 years as the newspaper’s night Sports section coordinator, placing him in charge of the Sports copy desk.
Vikings
Vikings
Rookie Will Reichard has an injury history that goes back to college, so the team took steps to make him comfortable with the process.
Sports
Sports
The season will start a week later, end a week earlier and include 51 days of competition, down from 54 in 2024.
Gophers
Gophers
Ben Johnson singled out his seniors after a loss to Indiana, and they responded in practice.
Vikings
Vikings
Rookie Will Reichard has an injury history that goes back to college, so the team took steps to make him comfortable with the process.
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