Canterbury to Add Four to Hall of Fame

SHAKOPEE, MN – Saturday night, September 5, Canterbury Park will induct four new members into it’s Hall of Fame.

Here are the honorees:

TAD LEGGETTQuarter Horse Jockey

Quart Horse Jockey Tad Leggett
Quart Horse Jockey Tad Leggett

Leggett was the leading quarter horse jockey each season from 2003 to 2006 and is second in all-time earnings and third in wins. He won 94 races during his career at Canterbury with a 32 percent rate, including multiple stakes races. In 2010, Leggett was paralyzed as a result of a riding accident at Fair Meadows in Tulsa, Okla.  Leggett’s daughter, Tiffany, has followed her father into racing and currently serves as the highly regarded Horsemen’s Bookkeeper at Canterbury.

RACHEL BLOUNTMinneapolis Star-Tribune Sports Reporter

Star Tribune Sports Report Rachel Blount
Star Tribune Sports Report Rachel Blount

Blount has covered horse racing for the Star Tribune since 1995. The University of Notre Dame graduate, who grew up in Iowa, has shared her love of the sport for two decades by telling the stories of the people and horses involved in thoroughbred and quarter horse racing.  Blount has chronicled the ups and downs of Minnesota racing and her engaging stories of its near demise and recent resurrection read as a history of the sport in Minnesota.

DR. RICHARD BOWMAN – Veterinarian

Dr. Richard Bowman, DVM
Dr. Richard Bowman

Dr. Bowman has been a Minnesota Racing Commission veterinarian since 1986. He is best known among horsemen for operating Bowman’s Second Chance Ranch at his cattle ranch in North Dakota where he has provided a temporary refuge for hundreds of retired racehorses. Bowman assists with finding new homes and second careers for those horses. Never one for saying ‘no’, Bowman is responsible for not only placing horses that come off the track healthy, but also rehabilitating those with injuries, enabling them live out their lives in peace and comfort.

WALLY’S CHOICE Minnesota bred Champion and Graded Stakes Winner

Wally's Choice
Wally’s Choice

Wally’s Choice, campaigned by Canterbury Park Chairman of the Board Curtis Sampson of Hector, Minn. and Wally and Joyce McNeil of Plymouth, Minn., is third in all-time earnings at the Shakopee, Minn. racetrack. The Minnesota-bred won both the Minnesota Classic Championship and the Blair’s Cove Stakes twice, and also won the Minnesota Derby. Wally’s Choice became one of four Minnesota-breds to win a graded race by winning the 2004 Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park. Wally’s Choice was a perennial fan favorite, not only for his success and longevity, but also for his personable and engaging co-owner, local legend Wally “The Beer Man” McNeil.

These inductees join a group of more than forty individuals and horses that comprise the best of Minnesota racing. The Canterbury Hall of Fame was founded in 1995 to recognize people and horses that have made important and lasting contributions to the racing industry within the state. The selection committee consists of representatives of local horsemen organizations, local media, and Canterbury Park.