Maritime champion tangles with top mares

Woodmere Finesse takes on four foes for her new trainer in the top aged pace of the night Thursday at Red Shores t the Charlottetown Driving Park.

First race post time is 6:30 p.m. for the 11-dash program with Woodmere Finesse drawing Post 4 for the duo of driver Gilles Barrieau and trainer Jeff Lilley.

The four-year-old daughter of Articulator takes on her rivals in Race 7 of the evening for a $1,800 purse as she looks to add to the eight wins she has compiled on the season.

Edward Maher of Lower Sackville, N.S, owns Woodmere Finesse, a winner in 1:56 over Truro Raceway in Nova Scotia this season. Woodmere Finesse turned heads as a two-year-old when she recorded a win in 1:57.4 without hopples, a record for free-legged rookies on the East Coast. Race analyst Les MacIsaac puts Woodmere Finesse as his top selection.

“Woodmere Finesse gets Gilles in the bike for this one and with him being on quite a roll lately she could be sitting on a big one,” MacIsaac said.

West River Ambyr looks to have some say in the outcome as the five-year-old daughter of Brandon’s Cowboy also drops out of the Open Mares ranks into Post 2 for driver Steven Shepherd and trainer Harold Shepherd. The 18time winner has a solid summary of 16-top-three finishes in 2018 from 23 starts.

Other entries include Goodmorning Ky (driven by Ken Murphy), Julep Hanover (Wade Myers) and Driving the dragon N (Jason Hughes).

Race 6 on the program is the CPKN Stanhope Workshop 2018 pace with a full field of eight pacing mares. Dusty Lane Zendaya gets top billing as the morning line choice, but must overcome Post 8 for driver Ron Gass, trainer Stephen Gass and owners Alexis Gass and the Estate Of Shelley Gass of Cornwall, P.E.I.

Other top entries include CL La Rousse (David Dowling) and Can Art (Adam Merner).

The program also features a pair of three-year-old overnight classes for non-winners of $3,000 lifetime that carry a special purse of $2,500 each in races 3 and 5.

This weekend features the Atlantic Breeders Crown with the kick-off being the Atlantic classic yearling sale Friday, at 2 p.m., at the Crapaud Exhibition Grounds. Saturday and Sunday feature the best two and three year-old stakes racers in the region. Post times for both cards is 12:30 p.m. More at www.redshores.ca.