Seth Martinez Returns To Canterbury

by JIM WELLS

The small talk and the tall tales began the moment a fellow walked into the Mac Robertson barn on Wednesday morning, trailing Seth Martinez who was horseback by several minutes. The fellow had picked up the trail as Martinez rode past the racing office after a morning gallop.
"What time are you done?'' the fellow hollered.

"I'm done now,'' Martinez said.

So, too, was this particular fellow as he meandered short of breath into the Robertson barn, located a healthy jaunt from the racing office. Try keeping pace on foot with a thoroughbred sometime. Even one that stops to do a salsa dance every so often.

Standing next to his office in the barn were Robertson and a client, Bob Ryan. "Are you lost?'' Robertson asked the visitor. "The Mike Biehler barn is over there. How could you miss it. You spend most of your time there.''

It might help to know that the visitor is a chronicler of events for the Canterbury blog, and that Robertson, Canterbury's perennial training champ, is trailing Biehler by one win in the current standings.

Robertson was wearing his favorite t-shirt, the one that says Genz-Ryan on it. The small talk and the needling had already begun, and the point of the entire visit nearly got overlooked.
Seth Martinez, 31, Canterbury Park's champion jockey in 2002 and 2005 and the second or third place rider three other times in the early 2000s is back in Shakopee. With three Canterbury riders on the shelf after last week's horrendous spill, the timing is right for Martinez to step in, although he was assured of a spot before he ditched Emerald Downs in Washington to try his old stomping grounds again.

He rode in several races last week.

Martinez's ostensible reason for returning for Canterbury is to be near his children, Seth, Jr., 7, and Casey, 1 1/2. Martinez said that it was the lure of his children that got him back to Minnesota. When Robertson mentioned that Martinez will ride all of his horses except those that have just won races, Martinez responded, "Well...Mac's just like family.''

Suffice to say, Martinez and Robertson once ruled the grounds at Canterbury and are hooking up again. "I guess I just fell into the mix,'' Martinez deadpanned.

Martinez was wearing the belt buckle he won at Turf Paradise in Phoenix as its riding champ in 2008. He also won the riding title at Emerald Downs that year, his first at the Washington track. "I wasn't doing all that well there this year,'' he said, adding that it's hard to concentrate on one's chosen profession with family matters looming.

The conversation between Martinez and Robertson shifted to fishing at that point and some of their visits to any of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, from the Twin Cities to Bemidji. Locally, was Riley Lake the place to be or O'Dowd?

One thing seemed a bit more certain than a definitive answer on that issue.

Martinez got to the barn well before the fellow trailing him on Wednesday morning. It's a good bet he'll get to the wire before some of the competition on several occasions this summer, too.

A BENEFIT FOR THE FALLEN RIDERS

Jockey agent Richard Grunder is spearheading an effort to put on a benefit for the riders injured in the spill in the sixth race last Friday night at Canterbury.

Paul Nolan and Don Proctor both had broken vertebrae in the accident. Veteran rider Scott Stevens was hurt worst of all, suffering broken ribs, punctured lungs, a ruptured spleen, back and other internal injuries.

Grunder said Wednesday that a spaghetti dinner and auction of some kind will be held on Monday, July 19 at the American Legion banquet hall in Shakopee from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8.

In addition, Grunder said that other donations can be made by check to the Canterbury Park Jockey Benefit and mailed to the track at 1100 Canterbury Road, Shakopee, Minn., 55379 in care of Richard Grunder in the Racing Office.

Grunder can be contacted at 727 560-5231.

OH, MY ACHING BACK
HPBA executive director Patrice Underwood knows what to do whenever she's enduring a headache associated with a stiff neck or shoulders. Just what she did Wednesday morning.
She headed to Dr. John Harder in the recreation room of the racing office, where the Shakopee chiropractor sets up shop on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The HBPA has arranged with Harder to visit the track, something he has done for around 15 years. Harder is with Shakopee Family Chiropractic.

"I've never seen a group of people who can use this (service) any more than racetrack people,'' Harder said. "Horses jerk people around whether they're walking them or riding them.''
The HBPA has a financial arrangement with Harder. "He gives us a very good deal,'' said Underwood. Patients pay only a $10 co-payment.

During Wednesday morning's session a stable hand walked through the recreation room with two things to say. "I'll get the $10 I owe to you tomorrow,'' she said, adding: "He's the only one I've ever been to who can straighten out my back and neck.''

The Chaplain and the Jockey

by JIM WELLS

By some accounts, it is a marriage made in heaven or, at the very least, the racetrack.
Take your pick.

Patrice Finnegan, as she was then known, was dating the man who would become her husband, Ed Underwood, and invited him to the racetrack. "If I win,'' she told him. "Come on down and get in the picture.''

Patrice was riding for Tom McFadden in the race and her horse indeed won. Here's where the question arises regarding divine intervention of some sort:
The horse's name was Future Fling.
Ed Underwood is a minister of the Lord.

Patrice and Ed met after one of the track's chapel services on the backside. Don Smith was the track chaplain at the time, and Ed, who serves the faithful in Shakopee, was there to help Don with music for the service.

"It was the end of July in 1990,'' Patrice recalled. "Ed brought his guitar to help with the music. He asked me out a month later and we got married in December.''

Clearly, Ed and Patrice didn't believe in long engagements.

"Best decision I ever made,'' said Patrice, who long ago hung up her saddle and is the executive director of the local HPBA.

Patrice rode from 1985 to 1992, all but two of those years at Canterbury. "I went to Iowa for a couple of years,'' she said, "and then came back in 1990.''

She rode in Shakopee until the track closed for two years after the 1992 meet. She rode in the last race run at Canterbury Downs and was planning on returning when the track reopened in 1995.

"I went two summers trying to get fit and be ready by the time the meet started here in 1995,'' she said. "But it was real hard, trying to get fit at the racetrack.''

She was also getting educated in other lines of work. During Canterbury's two dark years after the 1992 season, Patrice went to cabinet making school and also studied math and computers at Hennepin Technical College. She became a certified cabinet maker. She and Ed also worked in property management.

"After I quit riding, I didn't come to the races for a couple of years,'' she said. "It was real hard to be on the other side of the fence.'' She started with the HBPA in 2004.
Their present jobs enable the Underwoods to see each other during the course of a day. Patrice is located at HBPA headquarters in the Racing Office. Ed is a few yards away in the Dean Kutz Memorial Chapel.

Patrice is from Burlington, Wis., the original home to the coat company that bears the city's name and also home to the Nestle Chocolate Co. She grew up in the rural fringes of Burlington and was riding at an early age. "I had a pony when I was seven."

But she had to work, mowing lawns and babysitting, when it came time to buy a horse. She began race riding at Woodbine in 1981 and broke her maiden there.

Ed, on the other hand, has assisted all but one of the chaplains at Canterbury since 1985, and is also pastor of River of Life Community Church in Shakopee, where he started in May of 1994.
He did para church ministry before that and was involved in jail ministry in Scott County for 15 years as well. He took over as chaplain at Canterbury this year when Tommy Bartram asked him to step in for the year.

It has been an active, busy summer.

Ed generally arrives at Canterbury at 7:30 p.m. six days a week, unlocks the chapel and, after picking up his Spanish interpreter, Rueben Rosas, from the Mike Biehler barn, delivers a positive message for the day over the backside loudspeakers that is then repeated in Spanish by Rosas.

He does prayer services with the jockeys and the gate crew before each race card and conducts a weekly service in the chapel on Tuesday evenings. A meal is provided afterward, catered by his church or the Christian Life Church of Farmington. There are generally 50 to 60 members of the backside who attend.

The chapel also conducts an English as a second language class on Monday nights. Soccer and volleyball programs are available, too.
When she rode for a living, Patrice looked forward to the warm weather tracks during the winter months. She knew she would miss that if she retired from riding. A promise from Ed helped her make the decision.

"He told me that if I quit running around to racetracks, that he would take me someplace warm and tropical every winter,'' she said.

"I told him he had a deal.''

Martin Wins Consecutive Stakes Races

By JIM WELLS

The uniquely shaped structure that is the Dean Kutz Memorial Chapel can be seen from just about any vantage point in the grandstand, standing out as it does on the backside with its singularly configured roof.

The chapel honors the jockey who died of throat cancer in 2004 after making his mark as a rider during the early years of Canterbury.

Downs. Kutz won Canterbury riding titles in 1987 and 1988.

Sunday after the $35,000 Dean Kutz Stakes, Dean’s brother Wade and sister Connie stood in the winner’s circle with the winning connections to Stachys, who had a length on Shoot It’s War at the wire.

Rider agent Richard Grunder rushed into the winner’s circle to join the picture taking ceremony. He was the first agent for Kutz at Canterbury in 1985 and the last for the rider during his illness shortened meet in 2002.

“He was a great guy. One of the best,’’ said Grunder. Kutz, his former agent said, kept his sense of humor even with his voicebox gone during his final meet.

The winning rider aboard Stachys was Eddie Martin, Jr., whose horse had barely a length on Shoot It’s War and Ry Eikleberry at the wire.

That made a happy man of Martin, who rode the winner in the next race as well, the $35,000 Northbound Pride Stakes.

Martin and Eikleberry finished one-two in the Northbound Pride Stakes as well, although Martin and Hunter’s Tiger Paw had to survive a claim of foul from Eikleberry and Cell Line Forever to get the first stakes win of his career for Cory Jensen.

“I wasn’t too worried,’’ said Jensen, who watched the replay of the race. “I didn’t see anything to get too worried about.’’

Hunter’s Tiger Paw had just demonstrated a tremendous heart, giving up the lead in deep, deep stretch only to take it back at the wire.

“She’s tough. A big heart,’’ said Jensen, who’s pointing her toward the Minnesota Oaks July 31 for winning owners/breeders Kris and Joel Zamzow.

The final added-money race on the card was the $15,000 Great Lakes Stakes, and Eikleberry got his stakes win aboard 1-5 favorite Kool Hand Dutch, who covered the 440 yards in :21.79.

HOSPITAL RELEASES NOLAN, PROCTOR
Two of the three riders injured in Friday night’s four-horse collision at Canterbury were out of the hospital and moving about on Sunday.

Don Proctor was on his way home to Wyoming to heal. Paul Nolan was at Canterbury, watching his colleagues race as part of the Fourth of July turnout.

“I’m beat up but I’m making it,’’ said Proctor. “I’m going to take the week off, go home and rest. I’ll be back about the middle of next week.’’

Proctor said he decided to head home because the temptation to resume riding might be too strong if he stayed near Canterbury. “I just might want to get out there too soon,’’ he said.
Proctor fractured a vertebra and x-rays revealed that the two below it are “out of whack.’’ He said the two misaligned bones might be the result of some previous incident. Proctor hopes to be riding again in a week, two at the most.

Nolan was seated in the horsemen’s section with his wife, Sherry, on Sunday. “I’m sore and I’m a little stiff. It could have been worse,’’ he said. Nolan broke the transverse process in his spine. Recovery will take whatever time it takes, he said, but he is hopeful of riding by the Claiming Crown on July 24.

Canterbury Park Hall of Fame rider Scott Stevens is still hospitalized after being injured worst of all in the spill. Stevens was on the lead when his mount broke down and fell, causing two others to fall over him. He suffered broken ribs, punctured lungs, and a back injury.
Stevens was moved from ICU into his own room on Sunday.

Fox 9 Story

This story by Paul Blume aired on Saturday.

Stakes Winners Highlight Card

By JIM WELLS

Dash of Paint wore the winning colors, Mizzcan’tbewrong got a big break and Sarah’s Son had too much run in Canterbury Park’s three stakes races on Saturday.

In the richest race on the card, Dash of Paint, with Ry Eikleberry up, held off a mad rush from previously unbeaten Trickham to win the $58,650 Northlands Futurity, a 350-yard dash for two-year-old quarter horses, in :17.97.

“I thought maybe he had gotten me,’’ said Eikleberry. “It’s hard to tell with a horse that far across the track.’’

Trickham’s rider, Seth Martinez, thought his horse lost the race at the gate. “He jostled a little leaving the gate and didn’t quite get there,’’ he said.

Eilkeberry, replacing the injured Paul Nolan, won the very next race, too, the $35,000 Minnesota HBPA Mile (on the turf) with Mizzcan’tbewrong after Wine Diva, ridden by Eddie Martin, Jr., was moved from first to fourth place by the racing stewards for interference in the stretch run.

Winning trainer Gary Scherer, who handled Mizzcan’tbewrong for his brother, Richie, had a succinct statement about the win.

“We got lucky. We got a break,’’ he said.

Sarah’s Son, a five-year-old gelded son of Ogydoug (by Ogygian), was simply too much horse in the $50,000 Blair’s Cove Stakes.

With no place to go at the head of the lane, jockey Derek Bell simply let horses pass him and swung Sarah’s Son out wide. She had nearly 10 lengths to make up on the turn but was first at the wire, a length in front of Cubfanbudman.

“He really likes it outside,’’ said jubilant owner Jerry Myers.

“He’s an unbelievable horse,’’ said Bell. “I just know that all I have to do is push the button and he’ll rebreak. There isn’t a Minnesota-bred around who’ll beat that horse on the turf.’’

A SCARY WEEK FOR CANTERBURY RIDERS

It was a tough week for jockeys based at Canterbury Park or who ride there frequently.
The dangers of race-riding were never more evident than in Friday night’s sixth race when a four-horse collision sent three riders to the hospital, one of them air-lifted there by helicopter.
It was the first time in Canterbury’s 25-year history that a helicopter has been used to transport an injured rider.

Canterbury Park Hall of Fame rider Scott Stevens, the jockey who was airlifted to North Memorial Hospital, was on the lead when his horse, Sombre, went down in front of the field midway through the turn. Two other horses stumbled over Sombre and fell, the third veered away from the incident, unseating his rider.

“I’ve seen riders killed but this almost looked worse because of the domino effect,’’ said trainer Bernell Rhone, whose son-in-law, Dean Butler, was unseated in the spill.

Butler walked away from the incident and rode in the next race. In addition to Stevens, Don Proctor and Paul Nolan were hospitalized.

Butler’s horse, Run Katster Run, and Nolan’s horse, Brook Ghazer, went down also in the incident. Proctor was unseated when his horse, Black Ruby, veered away from the spill.
Nolan and Proctor suffered back injuries. Nolan was released Saturday afternoon. Stevens suffered multiple broken ribs, punctured lungs and a back injury. Stevens’ horse, owned and trained by Miguel Silva, was euthanized.

In incidents elsewhere this week: Stormy Smith broke both collarbones in a spill at the Fair Meadows at Tulsa, and Tad Leggett suffered a broken neck at the same track.

King Exchanges Her Saddle For The Barn

by JIM WELLS

Racing fans came to know her when she was riding thoroughbreds and quarter horses at Canterbury Park as Helen Vanek, a woman they could count on to give every ride her all.
Later, when she was riding primarily quarter horses, fans came to know her as Helen King, newly married and riding with the same verve she had always displayed.

Now racing fans in Shakopee are about to meet her _ still as Helen King _ but as a new addition to the training ranks.

That's right, Helen King _ nee Vanek _ trainer of quarter horses and thoroughbreds and about to saddle her first mount almost any day now.

King has disappointed a couple of folks who used to depend on her to ride their horses or at least gallop them when needed. But she is setting out now to start a new life with her husband of three years, John King, a former bull rider now committed to training horses and at some point in the not too distant future to starting a family with Helen.

"I'm 33 years and if we want a family can't wait too much longer,'' Helen said Wednesday morning.

John King is back in Norman, Okla., taking care of the horses the couple has there, while Helen tends to the eight horses _ five thoroughbreds and three quarter horses _ at Canterbury.

"They are all young horses and we're bringing them along slowly,'' Helen said.

She has horses in her care that belong to Scott Rake, Glenda Sapp, Dean Brenner, her husband, John, and Patricia Pearce, her mother-in-law.

Helen grew up north of Toronto and played numerous sports _ tennis, basketball (she was a 5-foot-4 point guard), swimming, soccer and rode horses most of her young life. "I fox hunted, jumped and barrel raced,'' she said. And she became a jockey at 17, riding first at Ajax Downs in Ontario and then Woodbine and Fort Erie before moving to some of the Eastern tracks in the U.S.

King had finished up her morning chores on Wednesday and was seated on a stack of shavings near an entrance to Barn D2. She dusted off a spot for a visitor to sit so they could talk.
She was wearing a big belt buckle that celebrated a 2005 win in the All American Quarter Horse Congress Futurity. "I rode Dianatogetcha for Bob Johnson in that race,'' King said.

It just so happens that Johnson is at the other end of the barn from King, so she is not far from a familiar face should she ever need someone to confide in as she launches this new career.
King rode her last race at Blue Ribbon Downs in December, according to the plan she and John have laid out for themselves.

Helen expects to saddle her first horse at Canterbury sometime in the next couple of weeks. It would be nice, she says, if that horse is She's A Demon, whose owner is Helen's mother-in-law. The horse is likely to run in Helen's name to spare her mother-in-law a trip to Minnesota for the requisite fingerprinting. Just the same....

"It's kind of a family horse,'' she said. "So it would be kind of nice.''

As Helen runs her barn and awaits the right time and the right place for her first start, she has had to weather a very personal trialsince arriving in Minnesota.

Helen's Canterbury meet has started out on a stressful note. With her when she arrived was a 10-year-old companion, Axel, a well behaved, well trained Weimaraner, who will wait on her hand and foot.

Shortly after arriving in Shakopee, a lump on the side of Axel's neck ballooned to several times its original size. An examination determined that the lump was cancerous. "He's been with me everywhere I've been. This has been hard,'' Helen said.

The good news is that Axel underwent a successful surgery and is back in the barn with Canterbury's newest trainer.

He was right at Helen's side at feeding time Wednesday afternoon. "Yeah, he's looking for a bucket to carry,'' Helen said. "He's a working dog.''

Helen does her part. Axel does his...and any day now, they will begin a new career together.

SILENT AUCTION COMING UP

Pastor Ed Underwood has a silent auction planned for the grandstand on Aug. 7-8 and needs donations for the affair. Proceeds will help reduce remaining debt on the backside memorial chapel.

HPBA LUNCHEON

The annual HBPA luncheon is planned for 1 p.m. on Saturday at Longshots in the grandstand. All horsemen are welcome.

Twin Cities Live - Swimming Pool

Emily Engberg from Twin Cities Live was at Canterbury to find out more about the equine swimming pool. Watch the video below.

http://twincitieslive.com/article/stories/S1632167.shtml?cat=10741