Take It Back Terry stamped himself as a force to be reckoned with in the 2015 Sobeys Gold Cup & Saucer after a gutsy performance in Trial #2 on Monday night at Red Shores Charlottetown.
Marc Campbell sent the pacer firing off the gate from post four, but leaving with equally swift turn of foot were DGs Camme (Gilles Barrieau) and Big Surf (Jody Jamieson). With no room to drop in, Campbell forged forward and made the front end after a brisk :26.4 opening panel.
Sparky Mark (Simon Allard) was first up and driving as the field headed in front of the grandstand for the first time, and the two favourites began to butt heads through a :54.4 half. The field maintained its order through the third panel, reached in 1:23.
Campbell asked Take It Back Terry for another gear, and he found it. The :27.4 final quarter repelled all challenges and tripped the teletimer in 1:50.4 -- just four-fifths off his lifetime best, taken at Mohegan Sun Pocono in 2013.
"I wasn't really sure how the race was going to go, I looked over and saw that Simon was off the gate a touch so I said 'well, I think I'll go for it and get up there somehow'," Campbell told Lee Drake after the win. "I saw Gilles made front and figured he might let me go and I'd like to control it. Simon came first up and we kind of just went up the backstretch, cruised along and raced home. It worked out great.
"He went a big trip. He's my kind of horse, he's kind of lazy and they told me the more you chase him, the faster he goes."
Campbell was very appreciative to get the chance to drive for the Burke Stable. The two teamed to win the 2013 Gold Cup & Saucer with Escape The News.
"It's amazing, they come here with class horses and give me the opportunity to drive them. It's very exciting to get to drive them. It's some real power, and they're really easy to drive for."
Take It Back Terry (Western Terror - Second Symphony) notched his 30th lifetime win for trainer Ron Burke and co-owners Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Larry Karr of Randolph, N.J. and Phil Collura of Mountain Top, Penn.
Sparky Mark finished second, with DGs Camme (Gilles Barrieau) and Lucan Hanover (Jonathan Drury) also punching tickets into Saturday's final.
Earlier on the card was the second leg of the PEIHRIA's Island Trotting Series, with two $2,000 divisions. The first leg of the series, raced at Red Shores Summerside, featured two track record setting performances. The second leg was just as memorable.
In the first division, Holy Molie Maggie (Gary Chappell) did her best to etch her name into the record books at Charlottetown with swift fractions of :29. :57.4 and 1:27.3. Licking his chops in the pocket was Kennel Buddy (David Dowling), who pulled pocket around the final turn and powered past heading into the stretch. Zip The Lip (Brian MacPhee) was loaded with trot in the stretch and gained ground on Kennel Buddy with every stride but the wire was kindest to Kennel Buddy, hitting his nose first in a time of 1:58.1.
The mile time shaved three-fifths of a second off the aged trotting gelding track record of 1:58.4, held by Moblessinsdinblues. Dowling trains Kennel Buddy, a five-year-old gelded son of Ken Warkentin, for Allan Neal of Grand Bend, Ont.
Two races later, Kennel Buddy's name was liquid papered over by virtue of the second Island Trotting Series division winner. Thunderaway was favoured in this split but Weskey played the spoiler. Robert Shepherd had the 12-year-old trotter on the engine through taxing fractions of :29.1, :58.2 and 1:27.3 before opening up on the field in the stretch and hitting the wire nearly seven lengths to the good in 1:58.
Patrick Shepherd trains Weskey, a trotter who has campaigned nearly exclusively in Ontario for the first 225 starts of his career, for owner Stephen Morton of Windsor, Nova Scotia.
The afternoon card at Charlottetown Driving Park featured a six-pack of Atlantic Sires Stakes divisions for three-year-old pacing colts, with a trio of $9,120 A divisions in a addition to three $2,500 B divisions.
BNGs Express (Danny Romo) took the fastest A division with a 1:55.2 lifetime best score. Heavily favoured Dixieland Band (1:55.4, Gilles Barrieau) and Proven Desire (1:56.3, Marc Campbell) scored in the other splits.
The three $2,500 B divisions were won by Timely Finesse (Campbell, 1:58.1), Jigtime Arti (Clare MacDonald, 1:59) and Mob Rule (Corey MacPherson, 2:00.2).
To view the the results from the Monday cards at Charlottetown, click one of the following links:
Monday Results - Charlottetown Driving Park (Afternoon) -- Monday Results - Charlottetown Driving Park (Evening)