Canterbury Park opens 32nd horse racing season with family attractions

Canterbury Park is betting that the formula still works: live racing wrapped in a summer festival, priced to attract horseplayers and packed with enough side acts to pull in families, too. The Shakopee track opens its 32nd season since reopening on Saturday, May 23, with the first of 51 race dates at 5 p.m. and a schedule that runs through Saturday, Sept. 19.

The Minnesota Racing Commission unanimously approved the dates, giving Canterbury the same number of race days it staged in 2025. Racing will be held primarily on Thursdays and Saturdays at 5 p.m., with Sundays and holidays at 1 p.m. The calendar also includes Memorial Day Monday, May 25, Friday, July 3, Wednesday, July 22 and Wednesday, Sept. 16, giving the meet a few extra anchors beyond the standard weekend rhythm.

That timing matters because Canterbury has built its summer identity around more than the races on the card. Opening weekend sets the tone with family attractions layered onto the meet, including wiener dog races, Taste of Canterbury food events and bulldog races on Sunday. Active-duty military members and veterans will be admitted free on Memorial Day, another signal that the track is selling more than a betting program.

The biggest crowd magnet remains the July 3 fireworks card, which Canterbury says annually draws the largest crowd of the season and can surpass 15,000 people. That kind of turnout helps explain why the track remains one of the state’s more durable live-sport attractions. Jennifer Lauerman, Canterbury’s vice president of marketing and entertainment, has said the track is looking forward to welcoming tens of thousands of guests back as the meet begins.

The backstretch is already awake. More than 800 racehorses and several hundred workers fill the summer stable area, where horsemen, grooms, exercise riders and stable staff form the behind-the-scenes engine of the meet. Canterbury has also pointed to a $15 million stable-area and racing-infrastructure project that includes new barns, dormitories, improved lighting, a safer rail, circulation roads, fencing, landscaping and a permanent RV park.

For bettors, the sharpest edge in the product is still the wagering menu. Canterbury again offers a 50-cent Pick 5 with a 10% takeout, which the track says is the lowest takeout rate in North American racing. That gives the meet a direct selling point at a time when tracks across the country are competing not just for fans in the grandstand, but for every dollar in the wagering pool.

The history behind the meet adds weight to the opening. Canterbury Downs first opened in 1985, raced through the 1992 season, and returned to live racing in 1995. Since then, the track has staged a meet every summer, turning the Twin Cities suburb into a recurring stop on the Upper Midwest racing calendar. Last season averaged more than 5,200 fans a day and finished with attendance up 4 percent, proof that Canterbury’s mix of racing and entertainment still has a working audience.