American Pharoah Won’t Be Coming To Canterbury Park
About a month ago, I talked right here on this very website about the fact that Adrian Peterson should not play in the preseason for the Minnesota Vikings. While telling you about that, I brought up the fact that the management of Canterbury Park in Shakopee wanted to bring in Triple Crown winner American Pharoah to the park. We now know for sure one of those is not happening.
No Triple Crown victor will be running in the Mystic Lake Derby next month. Canterbury offered to pump the purse up from $200,000 to $2 million, but that still wasn’t enough to get America’s second favorite horse to Minnesota. The world’s favorite horse is Secretariat, the fake one from Craig Ferguson’s The Late, Late Show, at least, it should be.
American Pharoah is not done racing, though. The horse will rejoin the racing world on August 1 in New Jersey at Monmouth Park for a $1 million dollar purse. More racing could be in American Pharoah’s future if the horse does well in his return.
The Star Tribune reports that Canterbury made its official offer known on June 10. The announcement was made that American Pharoah wasn’t coming after management got word. Even though the Mystic Lake Derby is over a month away, Canterbury wanted an answer so they had time to prepare for the potential $2 million race and the throngs of people that would come along with it.
Canterbury Park keeps saying that the offer was not a publicity stunt which is not a lie. It wasn’t a ‘stunt’, but the likelihood of a Triple Crown winner coming to Shakopee isn’t exactly high.
Without American Pharoah, the Mystic Lake Derby will still race for $200,000.
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