Taking a page from the history books, Northside Downs will host a match race, which was a more common event in Cape Breton back in the day with two competitive horses meeting up for a head-to-head race.
The former Tartan Downs hosted many great match races during the 1960s and continued to the early '90s with some great matches between top horses like pacers Waveore vs. Winners Accolade and trotters Flaming Hanover vs. White Jasmine, just to name a few.
Track officials at Northside Downs decided it would be good to try something that worked so well in the past for an exciting event at the North Sydney, N.S. half-mile oval this weekend. It was easy to pick the match race starters with Cape Breton’s two toughest mares selected to face off in the matchup on Saturday, Sept. 27: Kiss Me Im Irish and Red Rum She Wrote. Both mares usually race in the top class at Northside and will not have to battle the boys this week as they will battle each other.
Kiss Me Im Irish, with the inside post, will have her regular driver, Mark Pezzarello, in the sulky and Red Rum She Wrote will have driver, trainer and owner Martin Bates in the bike. The $1,200 Mares Match Race is scheduled as the eighth race on the card, with win wagering only.
Kiss Me Im Irish has put together a seasonal summary reading 2-6-6 from 19 starts. Robert MacNeil trains and co-owns the eight-year-old daughter of Big Jim out of First Lady Of Art with Bernard and Joseph MacNeil. She has won a total of 37 races lifetime and nearly $60,000 in earnings, with a career mark of 1:55.3 taken at Charlottetown Driving Park in her sophomore season. Earlier this month, she won in a season's best 1:58.3 over Northside Downs.
Red Rum She Wrote, an eight-year-old Vintage Master mare out of So Cute Hanover, sports a record reading 6-1-4 in 19 starts this year. She has 36 career wins and earnings just shy of $40,000, with a lifetime mark of 1:56.4 taken at Northside Downs in her four-year-old campaign. Her season's best was a 1:57.2 victory last month at Northside.
Donations will be made to local charities on behalf of the event sponsors for the match race.
Saturday's action-packed card will also feature the $3,500 final and $2,000 consolation of the Celtic Financial Series as well as a $1,700 Winners Over Pace.
First race post time is 1 p.m. (ADT).
To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click the following link: Saturday Entries - Northside Downs.
(Standardbred Canada)