The party was sure to be lively in Summerville, P.E.I., Saturday night after local horse Junebugs Baby upset the East Coast's finest in the Cecil Ladner Memorial Invitational at Red Shores Racetrack and Casino at the Charlottetown Driving Park.
Myles Heffernan engineered the winning trip behind fellow Cape Breton native Junebugs Baby in 1:55.1 at 16-1 odds to win the $5,000 Ladner Invitational as the second longest shot on the board with fellow longshot His Boy Elroy (Bernard McCallum) finishing second and race favourite Mr Irresistible (Marc Campbell) rounding out the healthy $1,355.90 triactor.
Adkins Hanover, with catch-driver Brett MacDonald, cut out blistering fractions of :26.4 and :55.1 before facing a challenge by the first-over Mr Irresistible up the backside with Junebugs Baby taking second-over cover at the 1:25.1 three-quarters. Mr Irresistible cleared around the final turn before Junebugs Baby and Heffernan took their shot to get up by half-a-length at the wire.
Summerville resident Heffernan also does the training while Jackie Heffernan of Glace Bay, N.S., owns the eight-year-old son of Western Paradise.
Campbell continued to dominate the driver's standings with three wins on the card including a 1:58 victory behind newcomer Mach Of Ballykeel for trainer Kyle Wilkie of Charlottetown, Dontcallme Dude in 2:00.2 for trainer Mike MacDonald of Orwell and with Hickory Chumley from his own stable in 1:59.1. The driving triple gives Campbell 58 wins on the season in Charlottetown after just 21 race programs.
Ramblinglily controlled the front end to win the $2,250 Open Mares Pace in 1:57.4 for driver Walter Cheverie, co-owner and trainer Allan Jones of Riverview, N.B., and co-owner Norman Leger of Shediac, N.B. Shadows Myster (Kenny Arsenault) was second with Woodmere Articblue (Campbell) third.
Cheverie and Brett MacDonald both had driving doubles on the program.
Live racing continues in Charlottetown on Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m., while the Future Stars racing program of two-year-old qualifiers scheduled for Saturday morning was postponed with the event being pushed to Monday, June 26 at 6 p.m.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Charlottetown Driving Park.
(With files from Red Shores)