It was a warm and breezy afternoon when we went to Canterbury Downs for the afternoon/evening. We all met at Canterbury Downs for a behind the scenes tour and to watch the horse race. Our guide for the evening was Mark Irving who was a jockey on break due to too many concussions. Our chariot for the evening was a candy apple red trolley. The first stop on our tour was the horse water therapy pools. No horses were using the pools at tour time but learning about the pools and their use was very interesting. Next up, the horses in their stable. It was a little before feeding time but the horses were well behaved. We petted a few beauties. Lastly, we visited the track before race time. There was a flurry of activity to get the track ready for the races.
Next up was the true horse races. It was fun to watch every horse race. The kids loved petting the horses when they came off the track. We watched 4 rounds of horse races. Then we met our tour guide, Mark, who was dressed to the nines and was ready for our backstage tour to continue. Just before the 5th horse race, we walked down below the track, through a corridor and popped out at the winners circle. Mark really rolled out the red carpet! We got a photo opportunity with Jockey ,Jareth Lovebury, and wished him good luck in the final race. We watched the final race from the winners circle. It was an incredible race with Jareth Lovebury winning the race. To make the evening even more amazing we got a professional photo with the jockey and his horse Toupp Ouoolle in the winners circle.
It was an extraordinary day and evening with a magnificent group of people. A big thank you to Heidi Stinson for putting this event together.
