Western Regional Driving Championship to Hennessey

Alberta native Mike Hennessy secured the opportunity to represent western Canada on the harness racing world stage by winning the 2022 Western Regional Driving Championship at Century Downs outside Calgary, Alta. on Sunday (June 19).

Hennessy, a resident of Lacombe, Alta., won two of the seven races in the qualifying contest, scoring a minor upset with HF Patrick ($10.70) in Leg 3 followed by an open-length victory in Leg 6 with Naked Burner ($4.70). With two second place and fourth-place finishes in his other races, Hennessy ended the contest with an insurmountable lead coming into the last race and took home the hardware with 62 points.

“It’s awesome. You always come out here to have fun, but when you win, it makes everything a little better,” Hennessy said with a laugh.

On the heels of breaking the 1,000-win milestone, Hennessy has driven horses in Western Canada and along its circuits for nearly 20 years. He enjoyed a career year in 2019 with $881,803 in purses earned and 136 wins, which ranks second to his 2017 season where he won 142 races.

Phil Giesbrecht, the current leading driver at Century Downs with 39 wins on the season, broke a second-place tie in the final leg to earn the final berth into the 2022 National Driving Championship. Giesbrecht, who is stationed in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., had just one win on the day but accumulated enough points to sit tied with Dave Kelly coming into the final leg. A third-place finish with Shark Week, slipping through a late seam at the inside, and a seventh-place finish by Kelly earned Giesbrecht the runner-up spot with 50 points in total.

“I had a couple campaigners that helped push me through, and I’m glad they did,” Giesbrecht said. I just want to thank everybody for putting their horses in, it was great. A lot of fun.”

Giesbrecht, who started his driving career racing on the Manitoba fairs in 2007, moves to the National Driving Championship in a year where he currently holds an all-time personal best driving average of .419 from 285 starts. He has won more than 1,000 races in his 15-year career and earned just over $6 million in purses.

The winner and runner-up will join the top two finishers of the three other regional qualifiers at the 2022 National Driving Championship at Century Mile on Thursday, Nov. 24 for an opportunity to represent Canada in the 2023 World Driving Championship in Italy.

Ontario Regional Driving Championship winner Louis-Philippe Roy and runner-up Doug McNair qualified in May at The Raceway at Western Fair District. The Quebec / Eastern Ontario Regional will take place next Sunday (June 26) at Hippodrome 3R in Trois-Rivières, Que. followed by the Atlantic Regional on Saturday, July 30 at Red Shores Racetrack & Casino at the Charlottetown Driving Park.

The final leaderboard for the Western Regional Driving Championship is as follows:

1. Mike Hennessy (Alta.) – 62 points
2. Phil Giesbrecht (Alta.) – 50
3. Dave Kelly (Alta.) – 45 (tie)

3. Glenn Le Drew (Man./Sask.) – 45 (tie)
3. Rod Therres (B.C.) – 45 (tie)
6. Brandon Campbell (B.C.) – 31
7. Kelly Hoerdt (Alta.) – 30
8. Scott Knight (B.C.) – 19