SHAKOPEE, MN – Canterbury Park announced the members of the Hall of Fame class of 2025.
This year’s class members are:
Ready to Runaway: Ready to Runaway brings a clear-cut resume to the Hall of Fame. She was a nine-time MN stakes winner including four straight Glitter Star stakes, the only horse to ever win four straight Minnesota bred stakes. She is the second all-time money earner at Canterbury Park and was the 2020 Horse of the Year.
Her lifetime record at Canterbury is 22 starts, 14 wins and 7 seconds. Her earnings of $533,400, is the most by a mare at Canterbury Park.
Ready to Runaway was bred by Wildcat Ranch, owned by John Menz and trained by Mac Robertson.
Nik Goodwin: A product of Bagley, Minnesota and a member of the White Earth Nation, Goodwin rode 157 Quarter Horse winners at Canterbury Park, the most in history, 36 clear of number two, Hall of Famer Ry Eikleberry. As a result of those wins, Nik amassed $1,935,015 in Quarter Horse earnings, also the most in history. He finished at the top of jockey standings four times and rode the winners of the Canterbury Quarter Horse Derby (three times), the Minnesota Quarter Horse Derby (four times) and is tied with fellow Hall of Famers Tad Leggett and Eikleberry with five Festival of Champions Day Quarter Horse wins.
While Goodwin is best known as a Quarter Horse rider, he also finished in the top five in the thoroughbred standings twice and won four Thoroughbred stakes.
Joseph Novogratz: Novogratz was the leading thoroughbred owner in 2016, 2017, 2018(tie), 2019(tie) and 2024. His career record is 168 wins, 110 seconds and 100 thirds in his first 625 starts with earnings of $3,940,855. He owned graded stakes winner and 2017 Horse of the Meet, Amy’s Challenge, and champion 2015 older mare, Stoupinator.
His stakes wins include the 2013 Curtis Sampson Oaks, 2017, 2018, 2019 Shakopee Juveniles, the 2019 Vic Myers and Minnesota Derby and the 2020 Frances Genter.
Carin Offerman: Offerman has been involved in Minnesota racing for more than 40 years. She registered the first two mares with the Minnesota Racing Commission. She owned one of the first Thoroughbred farms in the state and was in the show horse world prior to Canterbury Downs opening.
Offerman was active in the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association as a long-time board member and served as President at the time when the Sampsons bought the track. She served for many years as the chair of the breeders fund advisory committee when that group had a lot to say about MN bred racing, was an original Canterbury Park board member and she and Randy Sampson have both served on the board from day one. She also has served as chair of the Canterbury Park Minnesota Fund since its inception in 2003.
She is one of very few horse owners/breeders to racehorses at Canterbury every year since it opened in 1985.
Jeff Maday: Maday has been a part of Canterbury Park for over thirty years. One way that you can show his importance to Canterbury Park is that whenever something is off, needs to be done or needs to be addressed anywhere on the property, regardless of department, people’s first response is, “We’ll start with Jeff Maday.”
A reliable and steady presence guiding the press box and media relations, Maday runs handicapping contests, resolves player disputes and gets the media involved in such far-ranging events as Festival of Champions Day to a hot dog eating contest to dog races.
Maday co-founded the Canterbury Racing Club, a model for tracks around the country to give fans the ownership experience to promote their involvement in the sport. Many members of the Club have gone on to found their own partnerships or move on to single ownership which can all be traced back to Maday’s efforts.
Maday also chairs the Hall of Fame Committee and had to be left out of the entire process by the other members who unanimously felt he was (over)due this honor but would never bestow it upon himself or allow it to happen if he knew about the effort. Maday was surprised with the Committee’s decision days after voting closed for the other inductees.
The Hall of Fame induction ceremonies will be held in an invitation only dinner on Friday, July 11 with a further honoring of the inductees at the races on July 12.
