A Day to Celebrate Remarkable Females

Tomorrow, Sunday, July 31, Canterbury Park will present FilliesRace for Hope, a day of horseracing and fundraising for the Twin Cities’ Hope Chest for Brest Cancer Foundation.

Hope Chest for Breast Cancer Foundation helps financially distressed individuals and their families who have been touched by breast cancer. Since 2001, Hope Chest has provided over $1,000,000 in support for more than 2,000 breast cancer patients and their families in the Twin Cities area. Hope Chest offers emergency assistance programs to provide financial assistance for rent, utilities, transportation and delivered meals to families.

“Canterbury Park, its employees, and horsemen are pleased to host Fillies Race for Hope,” Canterbury Park President Randy Sampson said. “Not only will we showcase racing in Minnesota, we have an opportunity to be part of an event that gives back to the community.”

Headlining the day will be the $75,000 Lady Canterbury Stakes contested at one mile over the turf.  Tabby Lane won’t be running in that one, that type of race may be a bit over her head.  Coming into the race strong, however, is a mare that has beaten the odds to get back to the race track.  

A She’s Adorable (Johar-She’s Scrumpy- Squadron Leader) suffered a crack in her front “elbow” in her 2^nd place effort in the Robert Dick Memorial in July 2010.  When she sufficiently healed up and heading back into training she suffered a cannon bone fracture in her other front leg.  Most horses would have called it a career at that point, but after more time off, A She’s Adorable came back to the races at Arlington Park in a $80,000 Optional Claiming event which she won.  She had a hard time settling down in that race as she was pulling at the bit to get racing again and the win punctuated her comeback.  In the Lady Canterbury she’s going to take the next logical step and see if she can get back on the stakes trail again.  This gutsy mare is going to be tough to beat and, in her own way, embodies the fighting spirit of the cancer survivors that is Fillies Race for Hope. 

Part of the fundraising activities for Hope Chest will be the sale of pink horseshoes (see above) that can be dedicated in honor of a breast cancer fighter.  My horseshoe is dedicated to my beloved Godmother, Sandra Pappas.  Nouna, as we call our godmothers in Greek, fortunately won her battle with breast cancer. There are few women - people, really - in the world that mean as much to me as she does and I am grateful that she’s a survivor.  I am also grateful that she and my Godfather have the resources to be able to deal with the costs associated with breast cancer treatment because of the toll it can take on the family finances.  Many families do not and that’s where Hope Chest comes into play.

I hope you have the opportunity to come out to the track on Sunday and be able to support these remarkable females – human and equine – and their families.