Thursday’s Grade 3 Canterbury Park Distaff Challenge will be a reunion of sorts for several of the racetrack’s all-time top trainers with Jason Olmstead, Ed Ross Hardy, Jerry Livingston and Stacy Charette-Hill each represented. Former leading riders Edwin Escobedo and Cristian Esqueda are also returning to Shakopee for the evening.
Five-year-old Minnesota bred Beep Beep Rev Rev, proven at the 400 yard distance, will face six fillies and mares in the $38,148 Grade 3 Canterbury Park Distaff Challenge. Beep Beep Rev Rev is trained by Canterbury’s leading quarter horse conditioner Olmstead who has saddled the winner of this race in six of the nine renditions including three straight from 2020 to 2022 with Lynnder 16. Olmstead, whose track best $4.6 million in career purse earnings, is en route to his 11th consecutive training title.
Beep Beep Rev Rev, owned and bred by Summer Run Inc. and ridden by Ramiro Garcia, is the only entrant in the stake to have won at the distance. She has two wins at 400 yards, both at Canterbury, and also finished second in 2024 in this race to stablemate Aj Fast Corona. Overall at Canterbury she has five wins from 10 starts while finishing top-three nine times.
The Distaff Challenge morning line favorite at 2 to 1 is Bv Miss Mona trained by Ramon Mendoza who has never started a horse at Canterbury. The 4-year-old filly recorded her third career victory in a conditioned claiming race on May 18 at Remington Park. Escobedo is named to ride. He will make his first appearance at Canterbury since 2023, the season he won his third consecutive quarter horse riding title.
Hardy, Canterbury’s all-time winningest trainer, has three entered: Foxy Cowgirl, an Iowa bred stakes winner; Eos Keep Dreamin, winner of the 2024 Minnesota Futurity and Famous Tools. Hardy’s first of 12 training titles at Canterbury came in 2000.
Charette-Hill, who has not maintained a stable in Shakopee since 2019, will ship in Sendmecandyandarose. She is sixth in all-time wins and purse earnings at Canterbury and won the training title in 2013. Esqueda, top rider in 2018, has the mount.
The field is rounded out by Tailored for Gold Stable’s Five Bar Fantasy who is trained by senior statesman Livingston, another former leading trainer. Livingston has raced at Canterbury since the 1980s. He won training titles in 1995, 1996 and 1999 and amassed more than $1.3 million in purses and 161 wins, third best in track history.
“I like my post. I like my horse,” Livingston said. The 6-year-old will break from post position four. Five Bar Fantasy finished second in this race in 2023 and third behind Beep Beep Rev Rev last year. “She’s doing really well right now. I like me chances. I know she can get the distance.”
The winner of the Distaff Challenge becomes eligible for the AQHA Racing Challenge Championships held Oct. 18 at The Downs at Albuquerque. Racing Thursday begins at 5 p.m. central with seven thoroughbred races followed by the Distaff Challenge and a quarter horse maiden dash.
