Summerside Raceway will host a stakes-laden 13-dash harness racing program on Wednesday night featuring the Callbeck Stakes, the first Maritime stakes test of the season for two-year-olds
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Post time is 6:00 p.m., an hour earlier than normal.
There will be five dashes for the two-year-old pacing colts, and three dashes for both the two-year-old pacing fillies and the rookie trotters.
Rounding out the card will be three divisions of the Maple Leaf Trot for three-year-olds.
The Callbeck Stakes, sponsored by the Prince Edward Island Colt Stakes, honour the memory of George Callbeck, the first president of the PEI Colt Stakes and a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
In total, there will be $85,750 in purse money up for grabs. The two-year-old fillies will race for $8,050 a division. the two-year-old trotters will race for $6,150 a division, while the five colt divisions will each carry a purse of $5,900.
Each of the three divisions of the Maple Leaf Trot goes for $4,550.
Dunmore Chip, last year’s Atlantic Sires Stakes two-year-old trot champion, drew into a six-horse field for owner-driver Teddy Smallwood in the first heat of the Maple Leaf Trot while Maritime Breeders champion Grayland Bling will face Globe Trotter Stakes winner Dunmore Laird in the second heat.
Windemere Power, a stakes winner last year, is favoured in the third division for Kenny Arsenault and owners Earl and Margaret Watts of North Wiltshire.
The Maple Leaf Trot stakes are the first stakes events of the Maritime season for three-year-old trotters.
Last year, stakes record were set in all three Callbeck divisions. Ultimate Blessing set a track and stakes record with a 1:57.3 victory for the Ultimate Stables of Dieppe, NB, while Oceanview Kitty set a stakes and track record for two-year-old pacing fillies with a 1:57.1 victory for owner Claude Poirier of Magdalen Islands.
Windemere Power’s 2:07 trot victory was a stakes record.
Click here to view Summerside's Wednesday entries.
(Atlantic Post Calls)