Intended Royalty circles top class foes

Marc Campbell wins four races to establish lead atop the standings

Intended Royalty had to do it the hard way but came out on top in the Saturday afternoon feature at Red Shores at the Charlottetown Driving Park.

Mike McGuigan was in the sulky for the $2,200 event leaving from Post 7 with Intended Royalty at 5-1 odds.

Euchred (Adam Merner) set the early tempo as the post-time favourite with splits of 29.3 and 59.2. Intended Royalty began his advance at the half-mile marker while being forced three-wide for a short period before the fiveeighths.

Euchred would open up daylight on his competition before the three-quarters of 1:29.4 with Intended Royalty gobbling up ground in that split to sit in the two-hole heading into the completion of the race. Intended Royalty overcame Euchred in a stretch-drive slugfest to win in 1:59.4 with Burn Out Hanover (Kenny Arsenault) finishing third.

Randy Copley of Inverness, N.S., co-owns and trains Intended Royalty with co-owner Ed Copley. The veteran pacer surpassed $100,000 in career purse earnings with the win.

The King of Island racing is already establishing another lead in the Charlottetown driving standings as Marc Campbell had four wins on the afternoon card.

Campbell was a front-end winner with Pictonian Sareta in Race 2 in 2:04.3 for his first win of the day. The next three came in quick succession, as he captured Races 5, 6 and 7. Cougar Gal was a 2:04.1 winner from the Neil Bambrick stable, then Malabrigo captured Race 6 in 2:02.3 from Campbell’s own barn followed by a 2:03.2 victory with Windsun Rebel for trainer Vaughan Doyle.