The curtain will fall on Red Shores’ winter harness racing meet with a 15-dash program Sunday at the Charlottetown Driving Park. The card has been moved to Sunday due to the winter storm in the forecast for Saturday.
First-race post time is 12 noon.
Veronicavermillion (to be driven by Brian MacPhee) will be back in the top class after upsetting the field last week with a 1:56.4 victory. The Alex MacPhee-owned pacer has drawn Post 7, while runner-up Cambest Kisser (Kenny Arsenault) has landed inside for this week’s showdown and will start from Post 2. Modern Xhibit didn’t have any luck with the draw, as he has been saddled with Post 8 after having been scratched last week. Walter Cheverie has received the call to drive from owner Jonah Moase, Cornwall. The other horses in the field are also capable of landing on top of the triactor ticket and they include Oh To Be Me, Machinthesand, Pictonian Storm, Forever Paradise and Narragansett. The race is sponsored by Darlene Compton with a trackside cooler presentation to the winner.
Race 11 will see the final career start for Thebeastfromtheast who has drawn Post 5 in the $1,000 eight-horse contest. The 10-year-old daughter of Drop Off-Norma heads into Sunday's action with 26 lifetime wins and $253,418 in purse money. She sports a 1:50.2 lifetime mark which was taken in 2009 at age four at the Meadowlands Racetrack with Brian Sears in the bike for trainer Anthony Montini. The hulking mare was bred by Garrett, Justin, Brett and Marshall Whelan of Troy, Ontario; raised at Wally Wood's Marshfield Farm, and campaigned by Jim Whelan in Ontario where she was a regular on the Woodbine Entertainment Group circuit with Garrett as the regular pilot. The mare’s 1:50.2 victory had given her the distinction of being the fastest Maritime-bred mare of all-time until that mark was eclipsed in 2014 by Elleofnxample. Thebeastfromtheast still stands in a third-place tie for fastest Maritime-bred ever, regardless of sex, with Kid Carson. Jim Whelan campaigned the mare for the majority of her career and is now her sole owner after having claimed her back from Maine in 2014 and will breed her this coming spring. On Sunday, Jason Hughes will guide Thebeastfromtheast to the starting gate, for the 182nd and final time of her career, for trainer Nicholas Oakes.
The final card of the winter meet will be conducted Sunday with a special first-race post time of 12 noon.
To view the harness racing entries for Sunday at the CDP, click the following link: Sunday Entries – Charlottetown Driving Park.
(Red Shores)