Driver Mike Stevenson took home the most trophies during a stakes-packed program at Summerside Raceway, which featured multiple Gold and Grassroots divisions of the Lady Slipper and Joe O'Brien Memorial Stakes
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In the evening's main events, favourites Bemused and Charolettes Maggie were winners in a pair of $11,700 Lady Slipper Gold divisions for three-year-old pacing fillies while the popular Woodmere Ultimate and Maritimer starred in the $10,600 Joe O'Brien Memorial Gold divisions for three-year-old pacing colts.
Atlantic Breeders Crown runner-up Bemused wired her filly foes in 1:59 flat with trainer-driver Marc Campbell aboard. Pocket-sitter Thought Of (Earl Smith) followed over two lengths behind while Ultimate Spirit (Todd Trites) rounded out the top three.
The daughter of Force Of Life-Yankee Checkers paid $3.90 to win as the bettor’s choice. Greenoaks Farm of Mississauga, Ont. owns the brown filly, who won for the second time this year in 19 outings. Bemused, who has hit the board in 14 of those starts, has banked $30,342 in her sophomore year.
Charolettes Maggie went head-to-head with leading lady Our Lady Byng and wore down that rival to win her division in 1:58.1. Acton Noisey (Todd Trites) and Elm Grove Futura (Mike Stevenson) came on for second and third.
The favourite paid $3.20 to win for the 11th time in 15 outings. Tom Weatherbie trains the daughter of Royal Mattjesty-Midnight Beach, who has banked $35,372 in her first year on the track, for owner Shaun MacIsaac of Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Stevenson swept a pair of $7,500 Grassroots events for the fillies with the Brian Embleton-trained Edgewater Shadofax in 2:00.1 and the Wendell Wallace-conditioned Elm Grove Falstaff in 2:02.
Stevenson also won the first Joe O'Brien Memorial Gold division with the pocket-pulling Woodmere Ultimate in a career-best 1:58.4. Aarons Ambition (Mark Bradley) came on for second while pacesetter Tiger Williams (Earl Smith) finished third.
The Atlantic Breeders Crown Consolation winner was making his debut for trainer Wayne Bell and recorded his fourth win in 12 starts. Unraced as a two-year-old, the son of Western Success-Blue Violet has recorded four wins and five seconds while banking $16,091 for owners Boyd Macdonald Prodce Ltd. of Crapaud, P.E.I., Daniel Ross of Belfast, P.E.I., and Charles Seymour of Fredericton, N.B. He paid $4.90 to win as the odds-on favourite.
With Clare MacDonald in the bike, Maritimer rallied three-wide from the backfield at the third quarter mark and sprinted home to win the final Gold division by four and a half lengths in 1:57 flat, just one-fifth of a second off his lifetime mark. New School (Walter Cheverie) and Tobins Fortune (Mike Stevenson) rounded out the top three finishers.
The son of Full Scholarship-Country Chill, a third place finisher in the Atlantic Breeders Crown, paid $3.80 to win as the favourite. George Rennison trains the winner of seven races in 13 sophomore starts for Barbara Pearl of Hants Co, N.S. The lion’s share of the purse pushed his 2011 bankroll to $32,030.
The two $6,400 Grassroots divisions were won by Porthill Ian and trainer-driver Marc Campbell, and the Tom Weatherbie-trained Elm Grove Fonzie and Leonard Myers, both in 1:59.4.
For results from Wednesday’s harness racing card, click on the following link: Wednesday Results – Summerside Raceway.