As the record-setting 2021 Canterbury Park meet is increasingly in the rearview mirror, it is an ideal time to look forward to 2022. Its future looks bright, built upon a strong foundation from the past two years.
The 2020 meet set the bar high for the 2021 meet, as it shattered handle records, even as the Covid-19 pandemic dramatically impacted everyone’s life. What was not known: Was 2020 an aberration or had Canterbury Park found its niche’. The resounding answer was the latter.
With a hybrid schedule of weeknights and Sunday racing, the 2021 Canterbury Park meet soared well beyond the gaudy handle numbers of 2020. It became obvious early on that Canterbury’s competitive, turf-laden race cards were extremely popular with bettors all over the country. Almost $91 million was bet, including the all-time single day record handle of close to $4 million for the Northern Stars Racing Festival.
This strong performance bodes well for the next meet. There is every reason to believe that Canterbury Park will continue to attract more and more race fans. This is largely due to Canterbury Park being able to maintain a healthy number of starters as short fields in many other parts of the country have become commonplace.
