MacPhee To Make Woodbine Debut

Clyde River, PEI native Brodie MacPhee made his first step to breaking into the Ontario driving ranks Monday night at Flamboro Downs.

MacPhee, who moved to Ontario last week, scored a win with Hello Honey, trained by Charlottetown native Harry Poulton, in 2:03.4.

Hello Honey was the second-longest shot on the board and MacPhee was hoping to get an easy trip and finish third with the three-year-old Western Maverick filly. The plan changed at the start of the race.

"She was wanting to leave out a little bit, so I decided I’d leave out and made front," he was quoted as saying in an article by Nicholas Oakes in The Guardian.

MacPhee made front, then relinquished the lead to Astroika (driven by Anthony Haughan).

"When I got to front I tapped the breaks. I was trying to help myself get (to the quarter in) 29 seconds instead of 27. I was a long shot so maybe if we got to half in 1:00 or 1:01, I’d be around at the end and maybe have a shot."

MacPhee sat in the two-hole through fractions of 29, 1:00, and 1:31, then tipped out to win by a length in 2:03.4. Hello Honey paid $39.10 to win.

MacPhee’s next driving assignment will take place Thursday, December 4 at Woodbine Racetrack in Rexdale, Ont.

He is slated to drive Signal in the $21,000 ninth race for his uncle Ricky MacPhee. Signal will leave on the rail, and has been installed as the 4-1 second choice.

Brodie is unsure of where his mount fits in the race, but is confident in her ability.

"If she’s on her game I think she’ll be close with any kind of a drive."

He say’s he’s not nervous to drive at Woodbine. "No, not now I’m not. Maybe Thursday after the eighth race I might be."

Driving in the Maritimes in 2008, MacPhee had 65 wins and purse earnings of $98,982.

Woodbine’s race card has a 8:30 p.m. (AST) first race post time and will be simulcast at the Charlottetown Driving Park Entertainment Centre. Click here to view the entries.

(Nicholas Oakes is a journalism student at Holland College, and a columnist with Atlantic Post Calls)