When longshot King of Miami won the $150,000 Mystic Lake Derby by a head over favorite T D Dance on Wednesday at Canterbury Park, the payoff was big, but the wagering was bigger.
The Mystic Lake Derby was one of six stakes races on the 10-race Northern Stars Turf Festival program that attracted a record single-day betting handle of $3,795,180, surpassing the 2004's Claiming Crown single-day handle of $3,632,958.
King of Miami, a 3-year-old son of American Pharoah, was ridden by Jareth Loveberry and trained by Larry Rivelli. Loveberry, the leading rider at Canterbury in 2017, had not ridden at the Shakopee racetrack since last summer.
The 15-1 longshot settled behind several horses for most of the race, including front-running Bodenheimer, which went from Canterbury to the Breeders Cup last year. Both King of Miami and T D Dance, ridden by Florent Geroux, made bold moves in the home stretch to overtake the leader.
"I'd ridden here enough, and I was waiting for a hole to open. I was like, 'Open, open, open!' and at last it opened," he said.
King of Miami's time for the one-mile race was 1 minute, 34.76 seconds.
