Redmond Doucet wins Atlantic Regional Driving Championship

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I., May 25, 2024  —  From one of the nation’s smallest harness racing tracks to the national — and possibly international — stage. It sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but lightning has now struck twice for Nova Scotia’s Redmond Doucet.

Perennially one of the top drivers at Inverness Raceway in Cape Breton, Doucet won three of the eight races in the 2024 Atlantic Regional Driving Championship (ARDC), presented by Standardbred Canada, on Saturday, May 25 at Red Shores Racetrack & Casino at the Charlottetown Driving Park in Charlottetown. P.E.I. and will advance to the 2024 National Driving Championship (NDC) on Friday, July 5 at Hippodrome 3R in Quebec.

Doucet scored a total of 62 points over the eight-race competition, besting P.E.I.’s David Dowling (52) and New Brunswick’s Todd Trites (51). With the top-two finishers advancing to the NDC, both Doucet and Dowling will compete for a chance to represent Canada at the 2025 World Driving Championship in New Zealand.

Outrageous Song provided Doucet with his first ARDC leg tally in the second ARDC dash, pacing in 1:58 and paying $3.30 to win. Doucet then won the last two legs of the ARDC, winning in wire-to-wire fashion with 12-year-old veteran pacer Moonwriter (1:56; $3.80) and seven-year-old Three Trick Gainer (1:57.4; $5.40).

The 42-year-old Doucet, who works full-time by day as a customer service technician for a major telecommunications company, finished second in the 2018 ARDC at Truro Raceway and represented his region at the NDC at Grand River Raceway in Elora, Ont. Dowling will make his first NDC appearance.

Doucet and Dowling will compete at the NDC in July against defending champion Doug McNair, Ontario Regional Driving Championship qualifiers Tyler Borth and James MacDonald, Western Regional Driving Championship representatives Phil Giesbrecht and Mike Hennessy, plus two drivers from the upcoming Quebec / Eastern Ontario Regional Driving Championship on Sunday, June 2.

While Doucet’s career numbers — 4,177 starts, 924 wins and just over $1.3 million in purse earnings — might not boast the quantity of his competition, his quality is world class. In fact, Doucet boasted the best Universal Driver Rating in the nation back in 2020, with his 0.459 UDRS that year also ranking as the best average in North America for drivers limited to between 300 and 500 starts.

Factor into the equation that Doucet did not have a pari-mutuel start in 2024 before today’s card as his hometown track doesn’t start its 2024 season until Sunday, May 26. These races were, quite literally, his first starts off the proverbial bench.

“I thought I had some good horses, for sure. They looked good on paper. But it was my first time driving this year, so I was a little rusty, to be honest with you,” said Doucet, clearly excited about earning another chance to represent Canada. “Post this everything on a half-mile track and I had some good posts with front-end horses there in the last couple of races.  It worked out for me.”

The final leaderboard ARDC leaderboard is as follows:

fRedmond Doucet – 62
David Dowling – 52
Todd Trites – 51
Marc Campbell – 49
Corey MacPherson – 38
Paul Langille – 26
Ken Murphy – 21
Ardon Mofford – 17

For complete race results, click here.

From Standardbred Canada