Nearly 20,000 people packed Minnesota's Canterbury Park on Saturday for its annual Extreme Day, with the hit of the day coming in the Battle of the Surfaces.

The race presented the largest field in the nation to leave the gate, or in this case, gates, this season. A field of 20, one more than the Kentucky Derby offered, raced on opposing surfaces, 12 of them on the turf, the other eight on the dirt. They broke from different gates, of course, simultaneously.

To make up differences inherent in the two surfaces and the horses racing, the turf runners raced a mile and 90 yards as opposed to a flat mile for the dirt runners.

The winner was Joshua’s Journey, ridden by Alex Canchari on the dirt, trained by Valorie Lund. The first four finishers, in fact, all started on the dirt. Thus further adjustment will be made for future races. Seventy yards difference between horses on the two surfaces would have hit the nail on the head this time and produced a stampede of horses hitting the finish lines within flashes of one another, truly a spectacular sight.

Lund said she was simply looking for a mile race on the dirt for her horse when she entered Joshua’s Journey. "He really seems to like this distance," she said. He surely did on Saturday.

For anyone keeping track, the first finisher on the turf was the Bernell Rhone-trained Saturday in May with Dean Butler up.

The race required two gates, two running surfaces and two race callers. Paul Allen kept track of the turf race. Angela Herman called the dirt runners. Allen took over the entire affair in the stretch run.

Extreme Day wasn’t quite as extreme as 2013, yet a crowd of 18,915 did turn out, many of them to witness the camel, ostrich and zebra races, featuring jockeys, valets and members of the gate crew as their riders.

Dave Borunda, a valet and member of the gate crew, rode the winner in the Camelbury Dash, Rock N’ Spit, the defending champion. Lori Keith rode the fellow to victory last year.

Spaghetti Leg Steve was in fine form while winning the Don’t Lay an Egg Dash, limited to ostriches of any age. The winner was ridden by Quincy Hamilton, riding a big bird for the first time.

"It was kind of overwhelming," he said. "I had no idea how to steer him." So, Hamilton gave the bird its head and Spaghetti Leg Steve ran his long legs off. Afterward, Hamilton plucked a feather from his mount as a souvenir.

Jerad Howard from the gate crew had the winning mount in the zooming zebras event, outlasting three rivals. Nate Quinonez was thrown from his mount, a Zonkey named No Shades of Grey, but in an effort truly appreciated by the Extreme Day crowd, hung onto the reins and made a couple of attempts to remount, something he learned, he said. from watching the Indian Relay racers last year.

One truly disappointed observer of these events vented her frustration afterward. "I’m truly hurt that no one asked me to ride in one of these events," said Clair Kratochvil from Player Development.

"I didn’t know you liked to ride ostriches or zebras," said media relations director Jeff Maday.

"You didn’t ask," Clair responded.

Maybe next year.

(with photo, files from Canterbury Park)