In an unlikely route to victory, No Plan Intended stomped his rivals from last in the featured Preferred Pace on Sunday afternoon at Red Shores Racetrack and Casino at the Charlottetown Driving Park.
The $3,800 featured pace had American Risk (Gilles Barrieau) press the issue from the inside, parking 9-5 second choice Time To Dance (Marc Campbell) to an opening quarter of 27 seconds flat while race favourite and eventual winner No Plan Intended ducked to last while spotting the field 17 lengths at the first station.
Time To Dance ducked in the two-hole while American Risk continued to lead as the field finally bunched up and driver David Dowling moved No Plan Intended out into the outer flow second-over.
The half was reached in :56.3 with Island Beach Boy (Brodie MacPhee) first-over to engage American Risk at the three-quarters of 1:26.4 and strike the lead in the final turn.
No Plan Intended swung three-wide and rallied up to win by two lengths in 1:55.2 over Stash It Away (Ken Murphy) with Island Beach Boy third. He paid $3.40 to win as the odds-on favourite.
Jennifer Doyle trains the winning pacer, a five-year-old son of Up The Credit, for owner Danny Birt of Vernon Bridge, P.E.I. No Plan Intended earned his second straight win in the Preferred class and his sixth victory of the season in 23 starts.
The $3,450 Preferred 2 was won by 8-1 shot Phil Dorleans in 1:56.2 for trainer/driver Jason Hughes and P.E.I. owners Kent Williams, Andrew Williams and Lyndon Hardy. The eight-year-old Shanghai Phil gelding held off Navalny (Adam Merner) by three-quarters of a length with Blood Money (Gilles Barrieau) rounding out the top three.
Doyle also scored a training victory in the race 16 finale as Acrobat Hanover and Hughes prevailed in 1:56.1.
Dowling also drove a pair of his trainees to victory for the triple as Middleton Terror (1:54.4) won race three and Youremyhearthrob (1:57.4) was victorious in race eight.
Marc Campbell had a trio of driving wins as he leads the driving colony for the 14th straight season. The Orwell, P.E.I. horseman won with Cabot Beach (1:56.1) for trainer Brent Campbell, Catch The Spark (1:58) for Brendan Mullen and Boys Turn (1:56.1) for trainer George Rennison.
Former leading dash-winning driver Kenny Arsenault had a pair of victories as a trainer/driver with Hippyjohn (1:59.1) and Usurper (1:56.1).
Live harness racing continues on Saturday, Dec. 2 and Sunday, Dec. 3 with 12:30 p.m. post times for each card. The programs will also feature the start of special second chance draws for customers, presented by the P.E.I. Standardbred Horse Owner’s Association.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click the following link: Sunday Results - Charlottetown Driving Park.
(With files from Red Shores)