Big League dug in deep and fought off some late challengers to win his third Preferred Pace in a row Saturday at Red Shores at the Charlottetown Driving Park.
The time of the mile was 2:00.1 over a track rated good with a two second variant. The temperature was a cool zero degrees.
Leaving from post eight, driver Kenny Arsenault sent Big League, trained by Steve Wotton and owned by Jonah Moase of Cornwall, charging off the gate and took over the lead from Touch Of Lightning (Earl Smith) past the opening quarter mile of :29.1.
The timer flashed 1:00.3 for the half with Balanchine (Brodie MacPhee) starting to roll on the outside. He took over the lead from Big League when they hit the three-quarter station in 1:30.1.
But Big League fought back to regain the lead at the head of stretch and turned away late challenges from Touch Of Lightning and third-place finisher All Turain (Marc Campbell) to notch his fourth win in a row. It was Arsenault's fourth winner of the program. The 8-4-2 triactor paid $170.80.
Arsenault scored with JJ Nitro in race two for the ownership team of Peter Smith of Charlottetown, Don Smith of Pownal, Gerald Morrissey of Vernon Bridge and Larry Chappell of Marshfield. The former regional driving champion also rallied for victories aboard Four Brazz Starz for trainer Mitchell Tierney and Something Blue from the Reg MacPherson racing stable of Stratford.
Walter Cheverie had a driving double capturing the trot class with JK Queen for Joe Smallwood of Stratford and Norman Clarey of Charlottetown. Cheverie then wired the field in race seven with newcomer Julep Hanover for trainer Tim MacKinnon, who recently moved his stable back to P.E.I.
Racing returns Thursday with a post time of 7 p.m. Saturday post time is 6 p.m. Red Shores Summerside first card of the 2013 season kicks off Sunday at 1 p.m.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Charlottetown Driving Park.
(With files from Red Shores)