Last week's resignation of Minnesota Racing Commission chair Dr. Camille McArdle highlights issues facing the state's horse racing and breeding industry, including continued tension between regulators, political leadership, and tribal gaming interests.
An interview with McArdle and others involved in the Minnesota equine industry confirms worries about eroding purses and the state's current political posture toward horse racing. Since the expiration of a 10-year purse enhancement agreement between Canterbury Park and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in 2022, Minnesota has struggled to keep purses competitive with those of other states, many of which have gaming to supplement purses.
Since that time, purses have nearly been cut in half. In 2022 Canterbury paid out $13,534,819 in purses but in 2025 that number was down 46% to $7,315,075. That 2022 season saw 64 race dates but in 2025 the track offered just 50.
Canterbury Park CEO and chairman Randy Sampson noted that the Minnesota Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse track has needed to reduce race dates, the number of races, and the number of stakes to remain competitive. The state's Thoroughbred foal crop, which exceeded 300 annually from 2004-07, fell to 76 in 2023 after the end of the 10-year purse enhancement agreement. This has made it challenging to fill Minnesota-bred races, Sampson added.
An attempt by the Minnesota Racing Commission to add historical horse racing gaming to supplement purses was unsuccessful. After the MRC voted 5-1 in April 2024 to allow Canterbury Park and Running Aces, a Standardbred track, to install up to 500 HHR gaming terminals apiece, the MRC came under fire. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and other tribal nations asserted that the commission had overstepped its authority.
State law grants tribal nations exclusive rights to casino-style gambling, such as slot machines. Horse racing interests argued that the games were pari-mutuel. The commission's actions prompted legal action and legislative backlash, leading the state legislature to pass a law explicitly banning historical horse racing.
Earlier this month, McArdle and other commissioners were called into the state capitol and rebuked by members of the office of Gov. Tim Walz, McArdle said. She said she was told the MRC's role was to regulate, not to work with policy to aid the state's racing and breeding sectors. She views the latter as consistent with the commission's mission statement.
"I was told that it was embarrassing when we tried to pass historical horse racing," she said.
That ultimately led to her resignation after more than 30 years on the commission.
Among the difficulties facing the equine industry in Minnesota is the influence of tribal gaming interests, particularly within the state's Democratic Party. Industry insiders describe a pattern in which policy changes by horse racing interests can trigger legal or legislative pushback.
Running Aces complained to the commission about Walz's appointments of two racing commissioners with ties to tribes: Johnny Johnson, a former Prairie Island Tribal Community council president, and Melanie Benjamin, a former Mille Lacs Band chief executive.
"The governor appointing these two individuals was a hostile act in my book," McArdle said.
Walz's office did not respond to email requests for comment.
Asked if she found Johnson and Benjamin to be fair commissioners, McArdle said she had limited interactions with Benjamin but found Johnson to be friendly and noted his desire to see "more working together with the tribes than we have had, which I'm very much for."
The equine industry more warmly received Walz's recent appointments of Michael Vekich and Whitney Place.
Some view Johnson and Benjamin as having a conflict of interest, a point expressed by past MRC directors, a commissioner, and an attorney in a letter to the governor, which was read during an MRC commission meeting last year. The letter was signed by James Lane, former chair; Tom DiPasquale, former executive director; Joe Scurto, former deputy director; and Patty Sifferle, former general counsel.
DiPasquale told BloodHorse this week that the MRC needs "a revitalized, more energetic commission, and staff leadership—members of the commission who can see a mutuality of interest between tribal gaming and horse racing and recognize its importance to the state ... and a governor's office and legislative leadership that is willing to take a look at some creative options of the sort that have been used in other states to provide support to the racing and breeding interests because of its economic impact."
Walz, a Democrat, is also running for a third term next year and raising funds for his re-election bid.
Sampson said representatives from Canterbury Park haven't had "any meaningful discussion" with the governor on key issues.
Speaking of the legislature, Sampson noted that "the Democrat side won't do anything to expand gambling that would be opposed by the tribes, and the Republicans don't want to do anything that involves raising taxes or (using) general fund money."
One path forward for the equine industry would be a sports-wagering bill that through its structure could generate $5 million-$7 million per year for the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse purses at Canterbury, according to Sampson. But a similar sports-wagering bill failed last year, and the composition of the legislature is essentially the same.
Minnesota does not have a unified equine advocacy group comparable to the Kentucky Equine Education Project Foundation. KEEP, as well as horsemen's organizations, played a key role in a coordinated coalition that helped secure the passage of a law clarifying the legality of historical horse racing in Kentucky after a legal challenge and a court defeat. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission initially approved historical horse racing.
In Minnesota, advocacy efforts across breeds have been sporadic, leaving racetracks, breeders, and horsemen without a durable mechanism to engage lawmakers or build momentum for long-term solutions. Still, agreements such as the prior 10-year purse-boosting deal with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community have been secured before and perhaps could be secured again.
A proactive commission—paired with constructive engagement between the tracks, tribal nations, and legislature—could pursue purse-support structures, refined card-room models, or even regional concepts such as multistate circuits that broaden horse supply and ease competitive pressures. Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois could team together in a circuit under one proposed model.
But such plans will have to be made without McArdle, whose roots in the sport came as a regulatory veterinarian. Walz is tasked with appointing a replacement.
"It's a great loss that she chose to resign," Sampson said. "I do understand her frustration and how she felt that this would be the right thing to do as far as trying to raise more awareness about the plight of the industry and the need for the legislature and the administration to get behind it, but it's definitely a blow to the industry to lose somebody with that much expertise and experience, and really just a good person who was a really capable leader of the commission for many years."
