Canchari down but not out

Alex Canchari has come so close to winning riding titles at Canterbury Park. Last year, he fell one win short of leading rider Dean Butler, and the same thing happened in 2014. In 2013, Canchari finished the Canterbury meet two wins out of the top spot.

This summer, Canchari had just come back from a three-day suspension to win six races on June 15-16 at Canterbury and take a one-win lead in the rider standings when, through his own doing, he compromised his chances of winning his first Canterbury title.

Canchari had just taken a tough-beat second and was walking back to the jockeys’ room when he punched a wall in frustration. The blow broke a bone in his hand, and Canchari on Tuesday was wearing a cast.

Canchari said he underwent surgery that included the insertion of a pin to help heal the fracture. He has been fitted with a second cast, has started physical therapy, and hopes not to miss too much action.

“Thank God for the owners here, Barry and Joni Butzow,” Canchari said. “They hooked me up with a really good hand specialist.”

Chuck Costanzo, Canchari’s agent, said Canchari is hoping to be cleared to ride again by July 8, when he is scheduled to pick up stakes mounts on a rich card at Prairie Meadows in Iowa.

“The doctors said it could be two weeks, just depending on how he can take the pain,” Costanzo said.

With Canchari down, Costanzo and jockey Quincy Hamilton, who had been riding at Prairie Meadows, formed a Canterbury partnership. Costanzo said Hamilton planned to stay at Canterbury through the summer.

Through Sunday, Orlando Mojica was the leading rider at the meet with 26 wins, two more than Jareth Loveberry and eight more than Canchari, who for now can only watch from the sidelines.

Hay Dakota staying home

It’s gotten to the point that 4-year-old Hay Dakota looks like a solid Grade 3 sort of turf-route horse, but trainer Joel Berndt still is leaning against shipping him to Arlington for either the Grade 3 Stars and Stripes over 1 1/2 miles or the Grade 3 Arlington Handicap over 1 1/4 miles on July 8. Instead, he could bide his time and point Hay Dakota to the $50,000 Brooks Field Stakes on Aug. 26 at Canterbury, perhaps with some interim start as yet undetermined.

Hay Dakota upset the Grade 3 Commonwealth Stakes last fall at Churchill Downs as a 30-1 shot and validated that performance with a win June 18 in the $100,000 Mystic Lake Mile, Canterbury’s richest race for older grass horses.

“He came out of the race real good,” Berndt said. “I usually walk him four days but took him back to the track in three. I think he’s getting better all the time. He’s real mature-acting now and trains right.”

Berndt said the timing of the Arlington races was suitable, but he wonders if Hay Dakota would be at his best over distances quite that long.

◗ Berndt is prominent in the nominally featured fourth race on the Friday night Canterbury card, a first-level two-turn turf allowance in which he entered Handy Candy and Transformative, who is designated for the main track only. Handy Candy has won just once in 14 starts but has hit a new peak during 2017 and gets just his second chance on turf, a surface he might well like.