The final regularly-scheduled evening program on the Charlottetown Driving Park’s 2019 calendar is set to head postward this Thursday (Oct. 24), and Collective Wisdom will be looking to deliver in what will be her last race of the season under the lights at the CDP.
The 12-dash Thursday card features a 6:30 p.m. post time. After Thursday, action will shift to a Saturday-Sunday schedule with afternoon post times the following week.
Collective Wisdom is the early favourite in Race 11 on Thursday, which is the card’s top pace and carries a purse of $2,200. Gilles Barrieau is scheduled to be back in the bike for trainer Jackie Matheson and owner Woodmere Farms of Marshfield. The six-year-old daughter of American Ideal was a 1:58.1, front-end victor in her latest start. She will be climbing up a class for her Thursday test, but her competition still falls short of the open-mares level that she has been banging heads with for the large majority of her season.
Innocent Kiss will start from Post 3 and is heading in fresh off of an eight-length romp in her latest outing for driver Adam Merner and trainer Chris Davies. Post 5 belongs to Dancers Pass (who will be driven by David Dowling). Dancers Pass scored a large upset in her last start while racing against the boys at odds of 14-1.
Race analyst Les MacIsaac has gone with Collective Wisdom. “Collective Wisdom gets a post that should allow her to exploit that gate speed and get spotted on the lead or at the very least in position to sit and stalk all the way,” MacIsaac said. “She'll be hard to deny.”
The field also includes Killean Finale (Ken Murphy), Bettim Vicky (Marc Campbell) and Drivingthedragon N (Jason Hughes).
The $2,250 Open Trot will take to the track for Race 7. Freddie, who has been assigned the outside, will be in search of the eleventh win of his season for trainer-driver Campbell and owner Three Wisemen Stable of Kingston. Other top entries in the Open Trot include Summit City Nate (Barrieau) from Post 1 and Majian Tango (Jim Ripley) from Post 3.
The $1,400 Lowther Refrigeration Ltd. Pace has been carded as Race 4. Narragansett is favoured off of the rail for driver Hughes and owner-trainer Ashley Gamester of Hunter River. The veteran son of Rocknroll Hanover will look for his first top-three finish of the season after having just returned to racing in September.
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To view the harness racing entries for Thursday at the CDP, click the following link: Thursday Entries – Charlottetown Driving Park.
(With files from Red Shores)