CHARLOTTETOWN, PE – The driving title at Red Shores Racetrack and Casino at the Charlottetown Driving Park will be tight going into the final harness racing card of the calendar year on New Year's Eve.
Jason Hughes went into Saturday afternoon's card with a one-race advantage over Marc Campbell and scored wins with Stayoutofmyaffair and Timely Finesse but then Campbell came back swinging in the next race. He scored a win with Casimir Luciano in race 8, then came back to the winner's circle in race 11 with Rash B Havior in a blistering 1:57.1 victory over the off track, before finishing off his driving triple with Eagle Jolt in 1:58.4.
Hughes and Campbell tied for the dash title in 2014 and will go into Thursday evening's card tied at 111 wins each.
Idealic Life remained perfect off the claim in the Saturday afternoon top class.
The 11-year-old son of Western Ideal now has three victories since being claimed by owners Perry, Luke and Robin Burke and Kent Livingston. Corey MacPherson engineered the winning trip in 1:58.1 behind the Trevor Hicken trainee, with Lucky Encounter (Walter Cheverie) finishing second and Likely To Win (Ron Matheson) third.
MacPherson had a total of five wins on the 15-dash card including wins with Spectacular Future, Hurricane Hill, and Cloudy Bay. The 26-year-old driver captured his other victory in the $2,350 Open Mares Pace in 2:01 with Best Risque for co-owner and trainer Brian Ladner and co-owners Lillian and Kevin Ladner, all of Charlottetown. Whitesand Artist (Gary Chappell) came up large to finish second while Outrageous Spirit (Gordie Hennessey) got the show prize.
Chappell won the Open Trot class with Holy Molie Maggie in an eight-length romp in 2:02.1 over Pleasure Girls (Ron Gass) and Caliban Hanover (Cheverie). Holy Molie Maggie is owned and trained by Jeff Holmes of Orwell. It was one of three wins on the program for Chappell.
By Nicholas Oakes for Red Shores