Painted Desert going for SRW hat trick
There’s a 12-race card on Monday evening
Live racing returns to Red Shores at Summerside Raceway on Monday.
Post time is 6:30 p.m., and there will be a 12-race presentation, with Painted Desert trying to make it three wins in a row in the top class.
The fastest trotting horse of all time will make a rare Summerside start as Freddie, and his 1:56.3 clocking earlier this year in Charlottetown, will take on a field of pacers. It should be an entertaining evening of harness racing.
Thanks
Horse owner Kirk Bulger would like to thank everyone for their generosity at his benefit on Wednesday night. Friends and family of the very likeable Bulger raised over $40,000 to aid in Kirk’s expenses as he battles lung cancer. There’s one thing about Kirk Bulger – he’s a fighter.
World Series
The only Los Angeles Dodgers’ fan that I know of is the author of Robbie’s Ramblings, Robbie Shaw. The Shed Row 4 writer will be glued to the television, and I wish you all the best old buddy.
I may not be a Dodgers’ fan, but am certainly a huge fan of
Vin Scully – the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time, and possibly the best one-man sportscaster of all time.
Island Breeders
The 20th edition of the Island Breeders championship finals will be contested at the Charlottetown Driving Park on Sunday. This will be the last stakes’ event of the 2017 calendar. Post time is 1 p.m.
Flashback
Happy anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary is an old Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble cartoon from my childhood. It’s 40 years today – Oct. 28, 1977 – when I called my first professional horse race.
The harness racing game has given me the opportunity to call races at 43 separate racetracks from P.E.I. to Alberta. Newfoundland and Labrador and British Columbia are the only two provinces I haven’t had the opportunity to call a race in. Kenny Murphy 450,688 Walter Cheverie $48,783
Winningest trainers
(50 or more starts)
Marc Campbell 26
Earl Watts 16
Phil Sizer 9
Jansen Sweet 9
Frank Banks 8
Top percentage drivers (50 or more starts)
Marc Campbell .628
Earl Watts .335
Frank Banks .292
Phil Sizer .229
Jason Hughes .227
Top money-winning trainers (50 or more stars)
Marc Campbell $79,193 Earl Watts ($51, 414 Jason Hughes $17,588 Frank Banks $15,312 Blaine McKenna $10,139
It looks like Newfoundland is out with no more racing on The Rock. However, British Columbia remains on my radar. I’ve been able to meet some incredible friends and acquaintances in five separate decades. There’s been loads of track records come and go over the years. There’s been great horses like Power Baron, Kitley Township (my first Governor’s Plate winner), John the Third, Sauls Pride, Comedy Hour, Native Born and Ys Lotus to name just a few of the former invitational stars.
I was in the booth for Alan Sherran and Lornes Fastway racing against an automobile, to Ben Johnson taking on two racehorses and a stock car. I remember Elmer Clow and a group of drivers racing in the Hi-Rise sulkies, and Ronnie Gass and his single-shaft sulky, where the horse could completely turn around and look the driver in the eye.
I also remember starting gates crashing through fences at both Island tracks.
I used the PA system in one of the old gates in Summerside to call some races when the inhouse system went down.
I wouldn’t trade all my Governor’s Plates, Gold Cup and Saucers, Labatt’s Pace in London, Ont., or my Shelly Goudreau Memorial in Dresden, Ont., and countless $1,000 claimers for anything. I have as much fun now as I did as a 17-year-old kid from the west end in the beginning. Thanks harness racing!