Kudos for Canterbury Jocks!

Canterbury Park track announcer Paul Allen has called some 25,000 races, and he said he's never seen anything like the fifth race on Sunday.

The drama began in the maiden claimer for fillies and mares when one horse, Lil' Red Devil, flipped in the gate and was scratched. Then another horse in the field, Show, bolted and ran off for a few minutes before being caught and also scratched. Both horses and riders were fine, but the antics caused a 10-minute delay to the start.

“The aptly named, given this race, Little Drama Mama (loads in),” Allen said prophetically as the horses finally went into the gates. Little did he know, more drama was in store.

Seconds later, the one horse Tiz a Princess raised up and dropped her rider, Patrick Canchari, in the gate. Once he was back on, the gates opened and almost immediately, Tiz a Princess took a left turn on the turf course toward the infield, tossing Canchari again (he was okay). The filly hopped the rail and headed for the middle of the infield, while the rest of the field continued on its way.

Allen kept his eye on the loose horse as well as the running order, hoping to avoid the potentially disastrous outcome of a collision. As the horses headed into the far turn, Tiz a Princess jumped the rail again, this time putting herself squarely in the path of the oncoming runners. The jockeys on the leading horses, Jareth Loveberry on Razipat and Leslie Mawing on Battle Chic, anticipated an incident and slowed up their horses, altering course to avoid Tiz a Princess. The rest of the field slowed up as well.

“And now the jockeys, to avoid this horse, did masterful work,” announced Allen. “That could've been absolutely awful.”

After a stewards' inquiry, the race was declared “no contest,” and refunds were given for all bets placed on race 5.

Allen told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “the greater good prevailed; all horses and riders exited… safely. That one was straight from a Stephen King novel