Already holding a healthy lead over his peers coming to the 12-race finale at Century Downs, Brandon Campbell capped the season strongly with a five-win afternoon on Sunday (Nov. 7) to score back-to-back driving titles at the Calgary oval.
Campbell bagged three wins before reaching the midpoint of the Sunday card. He won Race 2 by open lengths with Rip It Up ($3.30), came back in Race 4 with Sunshine Boy ($7.20) and took the sixth race with Risin Horizon ($9.60). Towards the end of the card, he completed the five pack with back-to-back victories coming from Appellate ($4) in Race 9 followed by L A Woman ($4.90) in Race 10. The afternoon put Campbell at 81 wins for the season, well ahead of Kelly Hoerdt in second with 69. Phil Giesbrecht held third with 63 wins while Michael Hennessy narrowed in but finished fourth with 61 wins off a four-win day himself.
Nate Sobey secured the trainer’s title for the meet with a total of 55 wins, besting Brandon Campbell in second as he closed the deficit with two training wins to bring him to a total of 43. He broke his tie with Kelly Hoerdt, who held third on the standings with 41 winners, and Rod Starkewski clung to fourth with 29 wins, one better than Michael Campbell and Dave Kelly.
The closing day feature, an $8,100 event for pacing fillies and mares, went to Outlawstormywether in a 1:57.4 effort. The six-year-old Blue Burner mare settled into sixth while Miss Itunes set a tempo of :28.2 and :58.2 unchallenged on the point. Driver Ryan Grundy caught cover with Outlawstormywether from Jessies Girl to three-quarters in 1:27 and fired once off a helmet rounding the final turn to get by Miss Itunes to the line while Jessies Girl settled for third. Joe Ratchford owns and trains the winning mare, who now owns 10 wins from 89 starts and has banked $76,149 in her career. She paid $7.60 to win.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Century Downs.