Final card of the season at Summerside Raceway
The 2020 season at the Summerside Raceway will draw to a close on Sunday afternoon, but fans are in for a treat as the tight driver’s race continues.
Adam Merner and Corey MacPherson are in a lock for first place with 31 wins each, with both reinsmen looking for the first driving title of their careers.
MacPherson plans to be in Summerside Sunday with Merner absent from the card to compete in stakes action in Nova Scotia. Very close in third place is defending champion David Dowling with 29 victories on the season, but he will not be in Summerside on Sunday.
The Sunday Summerside program gets underway at 1 p.m.
P.E.I. SCENE
Quite possibly the last ever Maritime Breeders finals were held last Saturday at the Charlottetown Driving Park. Streakazana tied the track record with her 1:54.1 victory in the three-year-old filly final for trainer-driver Marc Campbell and has been subsequently sold to Ontario interests.
Mr Kelly (driven by Merner) survived a slug fest with his stablemate, Windemere
Ryan, in the sophomore colt final to prevail in 1:55. Windemere Ryan will also leave P.E.I. as he is tentatively sold to race in Florida.
The Maritime Breeders stake will move to a divisional format for all ages and gaits in 2021, doing away with the elimination then final format that the stake has seen for years. The divisions of the Maritime Breeders held for the two-year-old pacers in Truro was seen as an improvement with horses still receiving solid paydays but the money being moved around to more horse owners.
A pair of the Island’s top drivers will be absent for possibly the rest of the season. Dale Spence has left to go to Florida to work with trainer Dr. Ian Moore for the winter along with fiancé MacKenzie MacInnis, while driver Brodie MacPhee has gone to Mexico for the foreseeable future for work commitments.
ONTARIO SCENE
A pair of Islanders received career firsts in Ontario racing last week on the Woodbine Circuit.
Winsloe native Drew Neill had his first driving win at the big track aboard Nates Bucky in a front-end score of 1:54.2 at 35-1 odds. Neill trains the pacer who was claimed for $8,000 in that race.
Charlottetown native Mark McKinnon also celebrated a first with his inaugural training win at Woodbine Mohawk Park with Reagan Blue Chip (Jonathan Drury) in 1:54. McKinnon picked up the horse to train from Casie Coleman, who heads to Florida in the winter, for owners John Fielding of Toronto and Blue Chip Farms of New York.
U.S. SCENE
Summerside native Dr. Ian Moore celebrated his first ever North American Breeders Crown victory last weekend at Harrah’s Hoosier Park in Indiana.
Century Farroh flew up the passing lane to win the $500,000 Breeders Crown Open Pace in 1:49 in line to David Miller. Moore trains the winner of $1.4 million for Cape Breton owner David Ratchford.