Meet-leading driver Redmond Doucet's Philthy Phil capped off the 100th anniversary season of harness racing at Inverness Raceway on Sunday, Oct. 25, with a wire-to-wire romp in the afternoon's featured Winners Over Handicap Pace.
The $2,000 top class closed out the 2026 season as the seventh and final race of the day with Philthy Phil charging out of post five to take a three-length lead into a :28.3 opening panel. He maintained a commanding lead to the half in :57.4 with the field tightening up heading into the backstretch the final time. But Philthy Phil was just toying with with rivals and took off again after the 1:27.1 third quarter mark to win by 6-1/2 lengths in 1:56.2. The time of the mile was just two-fifths of a second off his lifetime mark, taken during his last winning effort on Sept. 27.
The winner returned $4.30 as the slight second choice to Stay Pumped, who was never a factor racing at the back of the six-pack. McLand and Danny Gillis chased from the pocket to finish second while La Playa Deo and Andrew MacLean followed back in third.
Owned by Doucet and trained by Lennan MacIsaac, the four-year-old son of Shanghai Phil-CMR Maybe Loaded has made all but one of his 15 starts this year over the Inverness half-mile oval, winning seven times, including three races in a row in August, and missing the board just once.
The win for Doucet was his 32nd of the season at Inverness as he wrapped up the driving title with a six-win lead over Zach Mullins (26 wins) in second place. Rodney Gillis (23 wins) rounded out the top three.
There was a tie atop the training standings as D.F. Beaton sent out closing day winner Mojo Beach to push his local seasonal win total to 18 and tie Mullins for first. Walter Walker finished the meet just two wins off the co-leaders, with 16 victories.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click the following link: Sunday Results - Inverness Raceway.
(Standardbred Canada)