Top three-year-old colts, fillies at SRW
For stakes-dominated card Sunday afternoon
The top three-year-old pacing colts and fillies in the Maritimes will square off in Summerside on Sunday afternoon.
Red Shores at Summerside Raceway is hosting the Ruby Chappell and Bob Dewar Memorial Stakes, with a post time of 1 p.m. for the 13-dash presentation.
Bremner winner
The 2018 stakes season kicked off last week in Saint John, N.B., with the inaugural Dawn Bremner Memorial. Split in two $11,000 divisions, Islanders came home with all the hardware.
In the opening division, Sock It Away (Marc Campbell) destroyed his rivals in 1:58 and change. In the second Bremner, Half Cut (Mark Bradley) only had to go a training trip to win by six lengths in 2:02. Both colts are in town Sunday.
Other notables in The Dewar
There’s a Cape Breton invader coming to Summerside that had them scratching their heads at Northside Downs. Dowahs Boy won his pari-mutuel debut by over 11 lengths in 1:58.4. Veteran conditioner Barney McGuigan will send out Weekend Atnannies in a $5,400 division of the Bob Dewar. This colt has back-to-back victories in 1:59 and change after getting collared late in his season opener in 1:57.4.
Tobins Lightning, out of the Kenny Arsenault barn, has rail control in the final Dewar event of the day. This colt had to requalify after breaking stride in his first start of the year. Arsenault “sat up” on this colt after his re-qualification, and won on the front in 1:59.4.
Ruby Chappell contenders
McGuigan trains a filly coming to Summerside on Sunday that is on a modest two-race winning streak. REs Shabla won back-to-back races over Charlottetown in 1:59.1, and that’s her personal best.
The all-time winningest driver in Summerside is Gary Chappell, and he has the morning-line
favourite – Tobins Terror – in a Rudy Chappell split. Gary had this filly in Summerside for a tour of the local oval last week, and she won in 1:59.3. Gary would be the first to tell you this is a special race for him as the track honours his grandmother.
What a difference a year makes – Cherry Pop was 0-for12 last year with only one second-place finish. Fast forward to this year, and the filly is 2-for-2. The transformation from two-year-old to three is sometimes amazing. They get bigger, stronger and mature. Cherry Pop won by 10 lengths in 2:02.1, and then won by five lengths in 1:59.4 to become the morning-line favourite in her division.
In Sunday’s seventh race, a division of the Ruby Chappell, it’s one of those wide-open affairs. Maybe its may bel line shows up as the morning-line choice, and that may be because Marc Campbell is in the lineup. Campbell was along for the ride two starts back, and gave her a new record of 1:59.3.