Minnesota Scene: Canterbury draws 20,000 for Extreme Day

Extreme Race Day at Canterbury Park, which featured exhibition races involving camels, ostriches and zebras, drew 20,291 fans on Saturday. That's the most since the track re-opened in 1995 and the largest crowd since 1988.

In the $18,000 Dash in a Flash Stakes, Stone Cottrell and stablemate Safari Sunset, both trained by Stacy Charette-Hill, took first and second in the 110-yard race. Stone Cottrell won by three-fourths of a length in a track record time of 6.988 seconds.

"I didn't think he'd get there," Charette-Hill said of Stone Cottrell. "He stumbled at the gate."

Charette-Hill's horses have now won 14 of 24 starts, finished second seven times and third two times.

Stone Cottrell, ridden by Jorge Torres, paid $4.80 to win as the wagering favorite.

The Gophers football team landed one of its top targets for its 2014 recruiting class when Owatonna defensive end Andrew Stelter gave them a verbal commitment.

Stelter had 12 sacks as a junior last year for the Huskies, who lost to Totino-Grace in the Class 5A state championship game. He reportedly had offers from Iowa State, Harvard, Princeton and Yale, and had been on Stanford's radar, too. Rivals.com lists him as a three-star recruit.

The Gophers are working hard to land Chanhassen offensive lineman Frank Ragnow, as well. He was expected to be on campus Saturday, as was Cretin-Derham Hall defensive end Jashon Cornell, whom ESPN ranks as the nation's No. 1 recruit for the 2015 class.

For their 2013 class, the Gophers signed just one scholarship player from the state — Wayzata linebacker Chris Wipson — in what was widely viewed as a thin in-state crop. But they're looking for a bigger Minnesota haul for 2014.

JOE CHRISTENSEN

Kurt Kleinendorst, a native of Grand Rapids, Minn., will be named coach of the Iowa Wild — the Minnesota Wild's new American Hockey League affiliate — at a news conference in Des Moines on Monday, according to multiple NHL sources.

Kleinendorst, 52, who spent nine years with the New Jersey Devils and won a Stanley Cup as Larry Robinson's assistant in 2000, was a finalist for the Houston Aeros' job in 2010, but now-Wild coach Mike Yeo got it instead.

MICHAEL RUSSO

Clayton Rask of the Crystal Lake Golf Club shot a 6-under par 66 on Saturday to take the second-round lead in the Minnesota State Open at Edinburgh USA.

He has a 36-hole total of 139. One stroke back are Sammy Schmitz of Valleywood Golf Club, Jon DuToit of Chaska Town Course and Thomas Campbell of University Golf Club. Robert Bell, the first-day leader, is among six golfers tied for fifth at 141.