Campbell and Legge Advance from Atlantic Regional Driving Championship

SUMMERSIDE, PE – Marc Campbell and Keith Legge punched their tickets to the National Driving Championship after a strong showing Wednesday evening at Red Shores at the Summerside Raceway.

The Atlantic Regional Driving Championship, presented by Standardbred Canada, took over races 3 through 10 on the 11-dash program, with Campbell finishing on top of the standings with 61 points while Legge was second with 53 points. The top two finishers advance to the 2026 National Driving Championship on Sunday, July 26 at Clinton Raceway in Clinton, Ont. The winner of the National Driving Championship will represent Canada at the World Driving Championship being held in Canada in 2027.

Campbell was a force through the middle of the competition as he won three straight ARDC divisions with Timberlea Lady ($11.30) in race 4 for trainer Jaycob Sweet, Shadows Terror ($2.30) in race 5 for Lenny Myers and Love Party ($2.50) in race 6 for trainer Kyle Marchbank, then added another victory with Brookdale Layton ($2.40) in race 7 from the Phil Sizer barn.

The leading driver at the Truro Raceway in Nova Scotia in 2025, Legge started the ARDC portion of the card on the right foot, winning race 3 with Redland Precious ($3.90) for trainer Tom Weatherbie. Legge later found the winner’s circle again in race 8 as Mr Harris ($18.80) delivered for trainer Earl Watts.

Mark Pezzarello pulled off the biggest upset of the evening in the $6,250 Preferred 2 pace in race 9 as Doc Awesome ($70.80) powered to victory in 1:55 for trainer Darla MacEachern. The six-year-old son of All Bets Off is owned by MacEachern, Allen Gaudet and Mike Cameron of Summerside. Sure Thing Captain was second for driver Zach Mullins while House Edge Hanover finished third for driver Paul Langille.

Corey MacPherson closed out the ARDC races with a victory in race 10 as Howmac Exclusive ($2.30) won in 1:55.4 for trainer Les Waite.

The final ARDC standings saw Campbell on top with 61 points, Legge second with 53, Langille third with 38, MacPherson fourth with 37, Mike Downey and Pezzarello tied for fifth with 35, Mullins next with 30 and Gilles Barrieau finishing with 23.

In other action, the evening opened with Shinerunner ($5.60) winning race 1 in 2:01.4 for driver Don MacNeill and trainer Luke Burke while All Bets On Leigh ($7.50) captured race 2 in 1:59.3 for Gilles Barrieau and trainer Jennifer Doyle.

The race 11 finale went to Brookdale Johnny ($5.50), who rallied to win in 1:55.2 for Paul Langille and trainer Paul Sizer. The Rockin In Heaven gelding is owned by Douglas Polley Sr., and Douglas Polley Jr., of Amherst, N.S.

Live racing continues Thursday evening at 6 P.M., at Red Shores Charlottetown. For more go to Redshores.ca.

For a full video recap see the video below.