About Canterbury Park

Canterbury Park race track stands in Shakopee, Minnesota, around 23 miles from the centre of Minneapolis down the I-35.

Race goers are well catered for with outside seating available along with several options indoors as well, alongside plenty of dining and entertainment options. Added to this are the ever-popular simulcast screens allowing wagering from race tracks all across the country.

Canterbury Park has hosted the Claiming Crown for all bar four years of its existence since the first running in 1999 (see below), while the Mystic Lake Derby was run for the first time at the track in 2012.

To increase revenue, a poker club is run out of Canterbury Park as the administrators seek to diversify the offering from the facility. Revenue from these extra streams help to increase the standard of live horse racing around Canterbury Park.

Canterbury Park History

Walter Brooks Fields Jr., among other prominent investors, founded Canterbury Downs as it was then following the decision to allow pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing in Minnesota back in 1982.

Having eventually been granted a license for the site at Shakopee, racing was held for the first time in June 1985 at Canterbury but, in line with other racetracks around the country at this time, revenue repeatedly fell below expectations and the track was sold off in 1990.

Having been renamed New Canterbury Downs in expectation of an upturn in fortunes the track in fact continued to fail and closed its doors to the public at the end of 1992 with the project seemingly dead.

After being sold again however, a program to reinvigorate Canterbury was started and the site reopened for simulcast racing from around the country and so, with revenues going up, by 1994 live racing returned to the site. In 1995, the track was renamed again and became known as Canterbury Park.

In 1999 legislature authorized a card room at the site with poker tables which meant further revenue gains for the site but, owing to the 2011 Minnesota state government shutdown, the track was forced to close once again. With a resolution to the shutdown found, Canterbury Park reopened once more in July 2011.

In order to improve live racing alongside the track’s other revenue generation, Canterbury Park and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in 2012 announced a 10-year deal to form a cooperative marketing and purse enhancing agreement which meant $75,000,000 was added to race purses at the track.

Canterbury Park Track Details

The track at Canterbury Park is a one-mile dirt oval with a seven-furlong turf course to the inside.

Biggest Races

Claiming Crown of Horse Racing – a series of nine races with purses ranging from $50,000 to $200,000, labelled as the “Breeders’ Cup of Claiming Horses”.

Place Your Bets At Canterbury Park With TVG!

Now you’re in the know about the track, don’t forget you can wager on races there with TVG. Head to our schedules page schedules page to check out the latest race times then bet and watch live!

Address

1100 Canterbury Rd, Shakopee, MN 55379, USA

Contact

Andrew Offerman (aofferman@canterburypark.com)