MINNEAPOLIS -- Track officials expect a jam-packed Canterbury Park grandstand this Saturday.
If the last few renditions of this particular week of racing were any indication, the complex's parking lots will be mostly full by the time the first starting gun sounds at 1:30 p.m. Both diehard horseracing buffs and the casual observer -- regardless of age -- can catch the thrill of an intriguing haul of athletic animals.
Working their way up to 30 mph, they'll tear out of the starting gates in a blur of mixed colors, their jockeys both spurring them on while clinging for dear life.
To be sure, Saturday in Shakopee will have all the makings of a huge, high-profile race day.
The only difference spectators may notice is the range of creatures speeding along Canterbury's dirt track.
There will be horseracing, yes. But interspersed among the traditional races will be a mix of Kansas-bred, exotic steeds, the likes of which you may have only seen on the Discovery Channel.
Extreme Race Day is back, and features one of the zaniest spectacles a rich and varied Minneapolis sports market has to offer: camels, ostriches and -- new this year -- zebras, all carrying jockeys on their backs and zipping past wowed fans.
"As a racing guy, I just don't understand it," Canterbury media relations manager Jeff Maday cracked. "I wish it was just as packed for normal horse races. But it brings in a lot of kids, a lot of families."
It's with that in mind that Midwest rancher Joe Hedrick founded Hedrick's Promotions, Inc. which breeds and trains animals on a farm in Nickerson, Kan., and tours them all over the country. This will be their sixth stop in the Twin Cities, all in the name of entertainment and education, Hedrick said.
"Expect the unexpected," Hedrick said.
The event has drawn Canterbury's largest crowd of the season each of the past few years, according to Maday, as word has spread regarding the spectacle of such an outlandish spin on racing. There are no odds or bets placed on the out-of-this-continent participants.
Just amazed stares and hearty laughs at the sight of an ostrich streaking across a finish line.
"The crowd that's here on Extreme Race Day isn't here to gamble as much as it is to eat, drink and watch these crazy animals," Maday said.
Trained from birth using tactics similar to thoroughbred horseracing, each species can run about 30 mph -- roughly the same speed as an average racehorse -- with a jockey on its back, Hedrick said. Typical Canterbury jockeys, handlers and even track staff will have the chance to put on a helmet and try to stay on their mounts during the 1/16-mile sprints.
Last year, Shakopee Mayor Brad Tabke hopped on a camel and guided it down the grandstand-length course.
It's a chance for family fun and for Hedrick, a former schoolteacher and rodeo clown, to shed some light on common misconceptions relating to the wild animals he races.
"The camel's hump doesn't have water in it," he said. "Dromedary camels, which are what we raise, they do not spit. Ostriches, they're very strong in their legs, one of the strongest animals on the face of the earth.
"They've actually been known to kick people and kill them."
That's certainly not expected Saturday. Each group of animals will race once, breaking up the day's horse action that starts at 1:30 p.m.
Within the past year, Hedrick added zebras to the mix. They'll run in the last unconventional competition of the day, which follows the seventh horse race.
After he got his start at a track in Arizona about 10 years ago, Canterbury became one of the pioneering sites for Hedrick's ventures. Now, he races animals native to other parts of the world about 20 times a year.
"We're really gonna draw a crowd, but we do basically everywhere we go," Hedrick said. "I've set some attendance records for them at different tracks. It's just different and so unusual that people come back and bring their friends with them year after year."
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