Horseman Mike Stevenson has the opportunity to repeat a unique feat that he accomplished three years ago on Atlantic Breeders Crown day, winning a pair of divisions with full-siblings. This afternoon he will send another brother and sister set to post during the championship card at Charlottetown Driving Park.

Among Stevenson’s Atlantic Breeders Crown starters this year are three-year-old pacing filly Pictonian Sareta and her younger brother Pictonian Basil, both owned by Daniel Ross and bred by Tony Zuethoff of Pictonian Farms.

Stevenson and Ross had previous success with the Zuethoff-bred Pictonian Amanda and her older full-brother Pictonians Souwest each winning their respective 2011 Atlantic Breeders Crown finals.

Stevenson’s 2014 hopefuls are by Western Paradise and Southview Sasha. They also have a half-sibling, Southview Special, who was an Atlantic Breeders Crown champion in 2006.

Sareta has earned five wins, five seconds and five thirds in 17 stakes starts this year with $42,738 in purses. She tied for fourth place in her division’s Atlantic Sires Stakes point standings having consistently finished second or third in all five legs.

Her richest win of the year was in the $19,175 Frank And Beth Stanfield Memorial at Truro Raceway on July 27 and her fastest was a 1:57.3 score in her elimination for the Maritime Breeders Stakes on June 14 at Charlottetown Driving Park – both with winning margins of nine lengths.

But Stevenson says what’s impressed him most is how she’s developed into a good race horse after being involved in an accident over a month before last year’s Atlantic Breeders Crown.

“Last year I thought I probably had the top one or two fillies down here until she got wiped out in a wreck in Fredericton and she never really came back at the end of her year at two,” explained Stevenson. “Last year after the accident there, she was very timid to race. She didn’t want to get up on a horse’s back, but now I think it is finally away from her mind. She’s settling down to do her work and she’s starting to enjoy it. Her last six starts I think she’s probably the best she’s been since I’ve had her at two or three.”

In her last start on Oct. 5 in the Lady Slipper Stakes at Summerside Raceway, Sareta paced the fastest mile of her life in 1:56 finishing second to division point leader Elm Grove Inarush, who Stevenson describes as being “hands down the best filly here.”

Stevenson will drive Sareta, who has drawn post eight in the 11th race championship, and he will hand the lines of his other trainee Sail Through, leaving from post two, over to Gilles Barrieau as he has done before when they’ve raced together.

Basil is coming off his first career win in an Atlantic Sires Stakes division at Northside Down on Sept. 27, which earned him a spot in the two-year-old pacing colt final.

“He was really hyper to start with and he had some issues settling down. As soon as we put him on the trailer he’d start to get worked up," explained Stevenson. "I kind of babied him the first three or four starts. I just took him back and kind of kept him out of trouble because he did make a break on us his first start and then we brought him right back and qualified him and, knock on wood, since then he’s been real good.

"He seems to be stepping up a little every time he races. I look for him to be competitive for the rest of the year and I think he’s going to make a real good horse next year.”

Basil will be driven by Gary Chappell in the ninth race stakes event and has drawn post five. Stevenson will drive the division point leader and post three starter J J Romeo, a two-time Atlantic Sires Stakes winner, who was scratched sick from his last start.

“He seemed to train up great this week and as far as the discharge and everything he seems to be cleared up so my fingers are crossed he’ll bounce back good,” said Stevenson of the Proven Lover-Romantic Terror colt that he also trains for Ross. “He’s just a nice, handy, little horse.”

Stevenson will also send out Swift Taylor from his stable in the two-year-old pacing filly division. The daughter of Articulator out of Susan Shea, who is “nothing flashy, but does her business,” is also overcoming sickness and has the outside post eight. “I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that she’s healthy, because if she’s healthy she can get towed into the race and she always has a good kick finishing.”

Stevenson will also drive Hollywoodgigolo in the three-year-old colt pace for trainer John Clarey, Tyne Valley in the two-year-old trot for trainer Bill Roloson and Glencove Yoshi in the three-year-old trot for Carl Bagnall.

To view entries for the Atlantic Breeders Crown card, click the following link: Sunday Entries - Red Shores Charlottetown.