Virginia Peters' sons always believed there was an expiration date on her time at Canterbury Park. Once they finished high school — and were no longer around to help out in the barn — they were certain she would get out of the horse business.
That was 23 years, seven grandchildren and many, many horses ago. Peters, 73, still shows up at the Shakopee track year after year to race the thoroughbreds she breeds at her farm near Jordan. Her tiny operation is dwarfed by most stables at Canterbury, but she will be part of Wednesday's Minnesota Festival of Champions when her veteran gelding Where's Jordan runs in the $100,000 Blair's Cove Minnesota Turf.
The festival celebrates the full scope of the state's breeding and racing industry, from the high-earning 60-horse barns to the mom-and-pop stables such as the one Peters has run for three decades. A retired teacher, Peters also sews the silks for many fellow horse owners and has served on the board of the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association. She's become part of the fabric of Canterbury, much like the Festival itself.
"I think my sons have figured out I'm always going to have horses," said Peters, who currently has two thoroughbreds in training. "Here at Canterbury, I have so many really good friends, and that's enabled me to keep doing this.
"Trainers with little stables, that's what you need. You need people who look out for you. I feel so fortunate that I can still be out here with the horses."
Peters races only horses she has bred and raised herself, from bloodlines that reach back through Canterbury Park history. This season, she has two second-place finishes and two thirds in 11 starts.
Her horses usually earn enough to pay for their keep, though she also takes substitute-teaching gigs to support the stable. The sewing business helps, too; in most Canterbury races, Peters said, three or four riders are wearing silks she made.
Horses have been a constant presence in her life. As a kid, Peters rode her father's horse to school, and she brought her own with her to South Dakota State University to participate in the rodeo club. She started breeding thoroughbreds in the early 1990s and got her trainer's license in 2000, when there were few women running stables at Canterbury Park.
"Gini is so hands-on," said Kay King, executive director of the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association. "She does everything, and there aren't many people who breed, race and train. The amount of faith and perseverance she has, it's monumental."
Peters gets some help with heavier tasks around the barn, but she still does much of the work herself. She researches bloodlines, chooses stallions, oversees her mares when they give birth and raises the foals. In the early spring, she has gotten her racehorses fit by riding them with a Western saddle on the trails near her 20-acre farm.
It's been easier over the past decade, since she retired from a 40-year career teaching family consumer science. While Peters was teaching in Mendota Heights, the last month of the school year overlapped with the first month of the Canterbury season. She would get to the track before dawn to feed her horses and arrange their workouts, then drive to Sibley High School or Friendly Hills Middle School for a full day of classes before heading back to the track for afternoon chores.
"I'd change clothes in a bathroom at school, which usually gave me enough time to get rid of the horse smell," Peters said. "I did that for about 10 years, and I don't know how. I always had good neighbors at Canterbury who helped out."
She still does, allowing her to outlast her sons' prediction. Where's Jordan — a son of Olga S and grandson of Scotty's Cashin In, both of whom raced for Peters at Canterbury — has been her most successful horse, with $119,942 in career earnings. She has high hopes for Found Jordan, a yearling she hopes to race next summer.
Peters' family jokes that she is addicted to horses, and she doesn't deny it. She doesn't want to stop, either.
"Twenty years ago, I wouldn't have thought I'd still be here, training horses," she said. "But God willing, I'll be here next year."
