The horses return to the racetrack to officially launch the live racing season and the Countdown to the Cup promotion Saturday at the Charlottetown Driving Park Entertainment Centre.

The action will be broadcast world-wide on the Aliant Race Day show by going to www.harnessracingpei.com. The program gets underway at 12:45pm with first race post time set for 1p.m.

A power packed, six-horse field will make up the afternoon feature race with Victory Creed, owned by Bill Andrew, Calgary, drawing the rail for driver Brian Andrew. The morning line favourite is Casual Motion for driver Joey Pineau. The five-year-old son of Camotion won his qualifier by five lengths with his last quarter charted in 28.1.

Racing analyst Les MacIsaac feels Casual Motion is the one to catch.

“He tends to lag at the start but in a compact field like this it shouldn't be much of a factor,” explained MacIsaac. “His last quarters are usually his best and since he'll probably be coming from off the pace, some live flow to bring him into it late increases his chances big time.”

The $2,000 class also includes pacing stars Negrito, Porthill Alf and Whos Smiling Now. Newcomer Hurricane Heide ships in from the Ontario racing circuit. Owner Jamie MacKinley of Cornwall has hired trainer Earl Watts while the driving duties have been handed to last year’s Gold Cup winning driver Earl Smith.

Trainer Dr. Ian Moore has three stable entries competing on the opening day card. The Winsloe trainer will drive Thunderfist in the fourth race, Justin Art in the sixth and Futures Kwik owned and trained by his son Tyler in race seven.

The Countdown to the Cup promotion allows customers chances to qualify to select a prize out of a pool of prizes totaling $50,000 throughout the season. Draw dates, prize packages and sponsors will be announced on opening day. The promotion is a celebration of two historic events the 50th Running of the Gold Cup & Saucer and the Canada Summer Games. The promotion ends the night before the big race.

(CDPEC)

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