Darth Bader earned his second consecutive victory in the top class during Fredericton Raceway's meet-closing card on Saturday with another wire-to-wire effort, helping local horseman Ed Harvey secure the track's 2015 training and driving titles.
The five-year-old son of Always A Virgin led the short field of four through fractions of :29.3, 1:00.2 and 1:30.1 en route to the 1:59 triumph in the featured $1,000 Winners Over Pace. Skippy came on for second-place honours, finishing two and a half lengths behind the winner, while Magical Alex and C L Royal Star completed the finish order.
Darth Bader's back-to-back victories pushes his win count to six for the season.
The feature win capped off Harvey's campaign as Fredericton's leading trainer for 2015 and also secured him the driving title.
He has earned 15 wins at Fredericton this year to lead ahead of Stephen Masons' seven wins in the training standings.
Harvey was also tied with Todd Trites for leading driver entering the season's final six-dash card. Trites won the opener with Cruise Level for trainer Colin Decourcey and then Harvey countered with Donald Bishop trainee Metro Man in the second race before taking the featured fifth event with Darth Bader to lead 14-13.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Fredericton Raceway.