You may have noticed dear reader, that you rarely see horsemen/women from east of Charlottetown represented in any great numbers on the executives of the various PEI harness racing associations. Oh sure, they have a director here and there, but not too many get invited to those restricted meetings, that decide things like classification, purses, race dates etc. Those are usually run from within that famous10 mile golden circle around the city and further west. However, the folks from down east have surely made their presence felt where it counts – on the race track. Take last Thursday night for instance at the ‘Charlottetown Driving Park.’ It was the first mid-week card of the year and out of 12 dashes, local horses and their connections won seven. The most notable was the top class win by Jason Hughes with Don MacRae’s Blue Star Outlaw in 1:57. Not to be outdone, Kenny Arsenault captured the featured trot, with Bert Honkoop’s BJ Eldorado in 2:02.4.

Kenny Arsenault served notice he was back in the driver’s seat last Saturday night at the ‘Charlottetown Driving Park.’ He got himself two wins on the card, including the feature with the Hardy Mills Stable’s Arabica. Trained by Anthony Stymest, with his 1:56 win, the Pro Bono Best 5 year old now owns the record for fastest mile on PEI in 2012. Arsenault I’m told had been suffering from a bad back recently, but some nasty folks think it was just depression over the fate of his Bruins that kept him off the track. At any rate the wily veteran returned in fine style. He picked up his other win with Everett Stewart’s Ebandtheboys in 2:02. Mike Stevenson also had two wins on the program, with horses owned by the Earnscliffe crew of Kevin, Barry and Trevor Doyle.

The ‘Outlaw’ came to town and the rest of the gunslingers headed for the hills so to speak. For the fourth year in a row, Fred Lamont’s Outlawpositivcharg won his seasonal debut in Charlottetown and racked up his 43rd win in the process. Driver/trainer Terry Gallant had the PEISHOA’s Aged Pacing Horse of 2011 in fine form at the CDP Saturday night, as they wired the feature in 1:58. It was another horse though, also from western PEI, who had the fastest mile of the night. Don Sweet’s Pembroke Fella captured the final dash on the card in 1:57.4. I always like it when good guys do well and was pleased to see Jason Hughes win three on the evening program. Jason’s a good horseman and works hard. I especially liked the look of a recent import he drove called Arabica. He’s owned by the Hardy Mill stable and won in 1:59. A down east newcomer looked pretty impressive as well.

Despite being interfered with at the half, Ron and Jody Matheson’s stable star Oakrock Almighty made it two in a row at the ‘Charlottetown Driving Park’ Saturday night. Owned by Jack Keenan and Joseph Dahl, the 6 year old won the feature in 1:57.4. Lots of nice 3 year olds showing up at the track. Brian Andrew gave Evalina a maiden mark of 2:03 on the card. He and Bill own the All American Native miss. They also partner with Blake on another 3-year-old winner House of Stuart. Cory MacPherson drove him to a 2:01.4 win. Frank Hansin’s N Xample colt Ankaway went a great trip and took a new record of 1:59.1. Pretty sharp for a 3 year old in April.

The headline above basically says it all about the Charlottetown Driving Park’s opening evening of racing. It sums up nicely last Saturday’s card at the capital city oval. And though the weather went from decent to downpour at the end, it certainly didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the bettors, nor the speed of the horses. In fact the last three races of the evening saw Ronnie Matheson guide son Jackie’s trainee Oakrock Almighty to a 1:57.3 victory in the feature, JK Special win in 1:58.4 for Walter Cheverie and Cardigan’s Norman Myers rein his and Darby’s Winbak Poker to the wire in 1:59.4. While there were also some nice pays in all categories, it was the Triactors that had the crowd and the race broadcast folks talking. Every race on the 11-dash card had a Tri pay of more than $100 except one and it paid $97.80. There were a number ranging from $200 to more than $800 on the card.

Seems kind of strange to say a guy in his seventies had his career year, but it’s true. Ralph Annear, known throughout Atlantic Canada as Mr. Trot, was the recipient of four major awards at the PEI Standardbred Horse Owners annual event. More than 300 people were on hand last Saturday night to see Annear and partner Steve Sorrie, owners of the great Maple Leaf Spirit, pick up the Horse of the Year, Trotter of the Year and 3 YO Trot Filly of the Year hardware for her exploits. Ralph also garnered a fourth award when his Sweetwater Ruckus won the 2 YO Trot Colt honours – career night for a great horseman.
Guest speaker for the evening was Mark Ford, a leading trainer at Yonkers and the Big M. You can well imagine, he had lots of stories to tell and plenty of questions to answer from the enthusiastic gathering.

Well over a year ago, Eastern Graphic publisher Paul MacNeill and I began discussing the re-launching of the Atlantic Post Calls. Once the decision was made to go forward, one of my first thoughts was, ‘I have to get Jerry McCabe involved in this.’ In fact, he became the first columnist I recruited to the new APC and since then, Jerry’s Trackside Trivia has become one of the most popular features in the tabloid. Now he has been recognized nationally for his tremendous work in preserving the memorabilia and the history of the sport, particularly on PEI. He has been named the first ‘Heart of Harness Racing’ ambassador and will be honoured with an award presentation in the winner’s circle at the ‘Charlottetown Driving Park’ in May.

And the hits just keep on a-coming. Horse racing in Canada has certainly taken its share of punches lately. The Ontario minority Liberal government, in its new budget is calling for industry funding to be reduced drastically. Horsepeople there continue to place their hopes in the opposition Conservatives and the NDP, who have promised to fight the cuts. They’re politicians though, so need I say more?

 Spring is in the air, so is change and it bodes well for Island harness racing fans. I’m feeling pretty ‘up’ this week, thanks to the folks writing/phoning me about a new tone in the discussions surrounding racing on PEI.

Back in the 90s the Harris government in Ontario, needing more revenue, decided to expand gaming. Rather than build additional casinos, they made a deal with horse racing to use its facilities. The trade off was that the tracks and horsemen would share in the proceeds. This allayed the decrease in the wager resulting from the slots’ competition. It was a good deal and had a tremendous economic impact, especially in the rural areas. Problem is, racing’s leadership was remiss in not planning for the future. They thought the goose would always lay that golden egg. It may soon become a goose egg instead. Unfortunately industry leaders made no plans should things go wrong. They quarreled amongst themselves, called unnecessary strikes, wasted financial resources on questionable legal cases and most importantly of all, forgot about their fan base and the bettors.