The Maritime’s top two and three-year-olds duked it out over a rain soaked oval at Charlottetown Driving Park on Saturday afternoon in six Island Breeders Finals
. Many of the favourites delivered impeccable front-end performances over a track rated 'good' and two seconds off.
Waiting On A Woman continued his dominating rein in the $8,000 Island Breeders Two-Year-Old Trot with a stellar 10-1/4 length romp in 2:04.1 for driver Corey MacPherson. The homebred son of Northern Bailey-Southwind Faith now boasts 10 wins, one second and one third in 12 starts and $36,537 in earnings for trainer Mitchell Tierney, who also shares ownership with David Tierney of Cornwall, P.E.I. Maple Leaf Spirit (Ralph Annear) and B J High Meadow (Bert Honkoop) rounded out the top three.
Second choice Howmacs Amigo and trainer-driver Terry Gallant led from start to finish in the matching Island Breeders Three-Year-Old Trot for Howmac Farms Ltd. of North Wiltshire, P.E.I. The Amigo Hall-Wicked Whisper gelding won by one and a half lengths in 2:05.1 over favourite Scarlet Patti (Darryl MacLean), who followed from the pocket, and J K Queen (Joseph Smallwood). Howmacs Amigo now sports a record reading 4-4-1 in 13 seasonal starts with $14,502 earned.
Driven by Shane Bernard, Acton Normal cruised to her 10th victory in 12 outings in the $13,000 Island Breeders Two-Year-Old Filly Pace. She stopped the clock in 2:01.2 with first over Honey Do Jigtime (Clare MacDonald) finishing one and a half lengths back and pocket-sitter Moon Landing (Gilles Barrieau) third. Tom Weatherbie owns and trains the Toofunnyforwords-Call It Life filly, who boasts lifetime earnings of $32,702.
The Eagle rallied from last to first to pull off a 13-1 upset in the $13,000 Island Breeders Two-Year-Old Colt Pace. Driven by Marc Campbell, the Justice Denied-Hot Asset colt trailed the field early on before charging three-deep past the third quarter mark and sprinting home to prevail in 2:02.3 by three-quarters of a length. Roses Dream Boy (Kenny Arsenault) finished second off a pocket trip while the popular pacesetter, Putnams Power (Danny Romo), was third. Gilles Barrieau trains the $24,071 career winner, whose record now reads 4-3-2 in 13 starts, for Michael Blanchard of New Glasgow, N.S. and Barry Blanchard of Kars, N.B.
Meridian Magic was a wire-to-wire winner in 2:00.3 in the $13,000 Island Breeders Three-Year-Old Filly Pace for trainer-driver Kenny Arsenault and owners Barry Martin and James Gillis, both of Sydney, N.S. The Largo-Hot Asset filly is now 16-for-17 in her sophomore season and has earned $81,770. Pocket-sitter Putnams Dough Girl (Bernard McCallum) finished three and three-quarter lengths behind in second and Scootingforsuccess (Gilles Barrieau) advanced first over to show.
Arsenault also captured the matching Island Breeders Three-Year-Old Colt Pace with second choice Allbentouttashape, who front-stepped his way to a 1:58.3 victory. The Sean Dooley trainee, a son of Quick Comeback-C A Lady, notched his 11th win in 17 seasonal outings and pushed his earnings to $60,175 for the Dooley Boys Racing Stable of Halifax, N.S. Fit To Ben Tied (Mark Bradley) finished one length behind with pocket-sitter Island Redemption (Marc Campbell) third. The popular Mr Salming (Gilles Barrieau) finished four lengths behind in fourth after a first over journey.
To view Saturday's results, click here.