Plenty of speed

Foiled Again may be the sentimental favourite for the Gold Cup and Saucer

The stage is set for what could be a new track record at Red Shores at the Charlottetown Driving Park (CDP) tonight in the prestigious Sobey’s Gold Cup and Saucer race, one of the great spectacles in the world of harness racing.

Ever since legendary James (Roach) MacGregor won the 1967 Gold Cup and Saucer with standout New England pacer Dr Harry C, the race has been able to attract top invitational-type pacers to this half-mile track for a race like no other in Canada.

Tonight’s race is loaded with speed and there’s a good chance the track record of 1:50:3, set by Crombie A last year, could fall by the wayside.

Go Daddy Go (Brad Forward) has the rail. The four-year-old son of Ponder has a win this year over the Yonkers, N.Y., halfmile track in 1:50:1 and appears to be razor-sharp.

Rene Allard’s other horses have a license to win too, as Ys Lotus (Louis Philippe Roy), who leaves from Post 2, sped to a new lifetime-best 1:51:3 here last Saturday while Shades of Bay (Corey MacPherson, Post 8) took his 1:50:2 record this year at Mohawk Raceway.

Foiled Again, the richest and greatest race horse of all time with more than $7.4 million in earnings, leaves from Post 4. He could be the sentimental favourite with this harness racing-mad audience. Foiled Again, now 12 and in the twilight of a storybook career, has won every major invitational aged event on this continent and could reach back into the past for one more glittering performances. He gets driver Marc Campbell, which certainly helps his cause.

DGs Camme is the only locally owned horse in the field Fiddler’s Facts and he raced great in his elimination for driver Gilles Barrieau and trainer Jackie Matheson. He is coming off a career-best outing and would need racing luck to get the job done this evening from Post 5. The ownership group is Hal and Quentin Bevan, Ron Matheson and Tom Clarke. Hal’s dad, Curley Bevan, once owned the mid-1950’s free-for-all star Sir Joseph, the fastest record in the Maritimes at the time.

Limelight Beach, from Post 6, is the other part of the Ron Burke entry and he’s the 2014 Little Brown Jug winner, a classic race in Ohio that is often compared to the Gold Cup and Saucer. Driver Anthony MacDonald, who was beaten by a nose last year with Atta Boy Dan, has been knocking on the Gold Cup and Saucer door during the past decade, so maybe it’s going to be his day in the sun.

Jody Jamieson, one of the top Canadian drivers, gets the assignment aboard Alexas Jackpot from Post 7. This is an experienced, talented driver aboard a horse that can win with a golden trip and who has won in 1:49:3 this season at Mohawk raceway.

There is plenty of early speed in this race and, if the weather is favourable, we could see a new track record and possibly a sub1:50 mile. Regardless, let’s hope for a great race, a safe journey for all and let the chips fall where they may.

It’s a terrific race card and I expect a crowd of more than 15,000. What a way to bring the curtain down on Old Home Week.

There is also the possibility the track trot record of 1:57:3 could fall tonight.

Freddie comes into this race on a four-race win streak for the Three Wise Men Stable, which includes Ray Murphy, Kent Scales and this writer.

The five-horse $2,500 field is a tough one and includes Osprey Impact, Hold Molly Maggie, Caliban Hanover and current track trot record holder Thunderaway.

They keep pouring in from all over for this big race.

Veteran Sonny Edwards is here from Montreal. Jimmy Whalen, the former Ontario Harness Horse Association president, who has done so much for the sport in the province, as well as Toronto’s David Shea, who won the Gold Cup and Saucer with Silent Swing in 2007, are here.

Carl Jamieson, one of the top trainers in the world of harness racing, is around the track.

Mark Beckwith, a talented trainer-driver from Saratoga with 5,000 wins to his credit, is keeping Wally Hennessey on the straight and narrow this week.

From beyond the Canso Causeway, ex-NHLer Paul (Jigger) Andrea, and ex-Sydney Raceway general manager Bomber Garabb are also in town. Ys Lotus – 8 votes. Trainers Ralph Sweet, Earl Watts, Clifford Murphy, Tom MacPhee, trainer/drivers Paul MacKenzie, Warren MacKinnon and Gary Chappell and driver Ryan Desroche.