Red Shores will again offer a full slate of racing this weekend, as the Charlottetown Driving Park will offer Maritimes Breeders finals on Saturday, and Summerside Raceway will host its second-last program of the season.
Pacing Titans Meet In Feature Event
Glencove Zani will be racing in defense of his Atlantic Canadian Triple Crown victory as he faces seven rivals in the Maritime Breeder’s final Saturday night at Red Shores’ Charlottetown Driving Park.
First-race post time is 6 p.m. and the Buddy Campbell Memorial Maritime Breeder’s three-year-old trotting final, sponsored by Meridian Farms, will line up for Race 6.
Mike McGuigan will drive Glencove Zani, who took a full sweep of the championship finals in his two-year-old season and was victorious in Leg One, the Atlantic Breeder’s Crown, so far in his sophomore year. Ted Smallwood of Stratford owns and trains Glencove Zani, who has rail control, but also a red-hot foe to contend with. Oceanview Pancho has been exceptional lately, after having battled issues earlier in the year that saw him fall short of earning a spot in the Atlantic Breeder’s Crown to face off with Glencove Zani. Corey MacPherson will drive Oceanview Pancho from Post 3 for trainer Paul Larrabee.
Other entries in the $7,600 event include Dunmore Ace (to be driven by Jack Panting), Southfield Storm (Terry Gallant), Time Warp (Danny MacDonald), Oceanview Lefty (Ken Murphy), Cardigan Jack (Marc Campbell) and Mr Bower (Kenny Arsenault).
The $9,000 Maritime Breeder’s two-year-old trot final is also on the card and Wicked Nick is the likely favourite for trainer-driver Gary Chappell and owners Cameron Trail of O’Leary and Peter Buchanan of North Wiltshire. The six-time winner has drawn Post 4 after having won last week’s elimination in 2:05.3.
His rivals include Mary Leah (MacDonald), Hop Up (Keith Campbell), Dusty Lane Gloria (Paul Lanigan), Just A Little Tad (MacPherson), Windemerepartyman (Panting), Revenueofwindemere (Campbell) and Howmacs Survivor (Gallant).
A free-for-all matchup will take place on the program, with heavy hitters Big Surf, D Gs Camme and Smiley Bayama scheduled to go bridle-to-bridle in Race 12 for a $2,550 along with some stiff competition. The draw was kinder to D Gs Camme this week, as the six-year-old son of Blissfull Hall drew Post 3 with Ron Matheson in the bike behind the Governor’s Plate champion, for the first time in a pari-mutuel event since a 1:54.3 victory in September of 2014. Matheson co-owns D Gs Camme with Quentin and Hal Bevan and Tom Clark, all of Charlottetown, while his son Jackie Matheson does the training.
Big Surf has been hot lately and lands with rail control in his matchup while riding a three-race win streak for trainer Trevor Hicken and driver MacPherson. Smiley Bayama (Adam Merner) draws perpetually poor against the heavyweights, and this week is no exception, as he has Post 6 in the field of as many. Other entries include Clic K (Campbell), Ramblinglily (Murphy) and Drivingthedragon N (Jason Hughes).
Also on the card, Beaus Cowboy will seek to extend his four-race win streak against aged company in Race 9, after winning the Atlantic Breeder’s Crown for three-year-old pacing colts in his latest outing.
To view the harness racing entries for Saturday at the CDP, click the following link: Saturday Entries – Charlottetown Driving Park.
Front End Speed Dominates Summerside Top Class
A three-race win steak is on the line in the Sunday afternoon feature at Red Shores’ Summerside Raceway, and driver Wade Sorrie is the only one who can keep it intact.
First-race post time is 1 p.m. for the Sunday afternoon card, which is the second-last program of the season in Summerside.
Minor Wisdom scored a huge upset in last week’s feature event to give her three straight victories and draws post 4 this week with Sorrie in the bike for owner-trainer Kristina McCourt. Minor Wisdom likes to do her racing off the front-end, as she shows being on top every start on the program but this week might be the exception as Best Risque has drawn into the $2,000 event from Post 2 with Jason Hughes driving for trainer Brian Ladner. The nine-year-old daughter of Cammibest was racing competitively against aged mares company all summer, so if these two hook up early on there could be fireworks. Front-end battle could play right in the hooves of the outside duo of Machinthesand (Norris Rogers) and Rash B Havior (Ken Murphy) who has both shown 1:54-1:55 speed when given proper fractions. The field also includes Painted Desert (Mike McGuigan) and Motorino (Terry Gallant).
Instant Shadow returns to east-coast racing on the seventh dash of the program with Mark Pezzarello driving for trainer Sifroi Melanson and New Brunswick owners Ultimate Stable and Robert Kyle. The three-year-old son of Shadow Play, who co-owns the two-year-old colt pacing record at the Summerside Raceway, was hot earlier in the season in Charlottetown, including a 1:56.4 front-end score, but found company tougher when he ventured to Ontario before returning home.
With the clock ticking on the Summerside season, Marc Campbell leads the way with 35 wins but will be racing in Nova Scotia Sunday giving an opening for second place Jason Hughes to close the four race gap, while Ken Murphy is in the hunt in third place with 30 wins on the 2016 season. Hughes has 12 drives on the card, while Murphy will make 11 trips behind the starting gate.
The 2016 trainers’ race looks to be fairly safe for Terry Gallant, who has 18 victories with Ron Gass in second with 14 wins and Hughes in third with 12 victories.
To view the harness racing entries for Sunday at Summerside, click the following link: Sunday Entries – Summerside Raceway.
(With files from Red Shores)