Re: Canterbury (623 Views)
Posted by:
mjellish (IP Logged)
Date: September 15, 2015 12:10AM
Canterbury has done a nice job of getting people to the track for years. They have created a much more family friendly environment than just about any track I have ever been to. Not that I bring family out there, but it's nice to see all the young kids running around learning an appreciation for horses.
So although Canterbury has done a fantastic job for year, unfortunately they just didn't generate the handle they needed to increase purses as most of the betters out there are $2-$5 betters. They pursued approval to add slots for years to help subsidize purses, much against the tribal casino interests nearby (one is just a few miles down the road from the track). Years ago they were able to get table games and poker approved, which helped. About two or three years ago, however, they finally got some traction behind their slot approval efforts. It became apparent the legislature was probably going to approve the measure. But at the 11th hour the Tribal Casino Government reached an Agreement to pay Canterbury several million dollars a year in exchange for them to drop their request for slots.
Since that Agreement was put in place, which also includes some cross marketing promises, the daily purses have more or less doubled, and the stakes program was beefed up. My understanding is the Agreement is a 10 year Agreement, but I don't know how iron clad that is without seeing it.
In the meantime, the racing product has been pretty decent. The pool sizes still leave a lot to be desired IMO, especially considering their takeout on their Pick 4 pools is only 14% every day. But their MSPWT races are now run for about $35k. A first level Allowance purse is 40k for a MN bred. So they have begun to attract some decent stables that had previously been running elsewhere, primarily Chicago and Iowa. I think they have a waiting list or darn close to it for stall applications. So all in all, I would say things are on the upswing. And they should be. It's a clean, well run facility and the backside accommodations are top notch for horsemen. The management was forced to "Get It" years ago to get the stables to come although the purses weren't as competitive as they wanted them to be. And now that the purse levels are much higher the track management hasn't forgotten what they learned from 1995-2005. Their announcer, Paul Allen, is also top notch and very underrated IMO.