-by Bill Dunphy
Take a bow, Inverness Raceway!
The 100th anniversary season was one to remember, both literally and figuratively.
Along with the great racing and great crowds that took part in the season-long celebration, 100 years of harness racing in Inverness County was remembered fondly.
“Memory Lane was a big hit. We had multiple families have memorial blankets and bring in memorabilia to display,” said track manager Meagan MacQuarrie.
“The merchandise was a hit. I have seen many of our hats around the community. And the racing was very interesting, with lots of upsets and lots of big wins for bettors. Our track is known for keeping the betting public on their toes,” she noted.
“We had a couple of new establishments take on our live feed for HPI betting, one in Maine, which is kind of cool when places like that request your track.”
But getting back to the many events that were held throughout the summer, MacQuarrie said, “The Veterans Day was my personal favourite. The Legion did a wonderful job remembering the vets. And there was the dance with Get Out of My Yard, Father’s Day and the petting zoo, and Gathering night was amazing. Everything went so smoothly.”
MacQuarrie said the volunteer turnout was also amazing, with around 50 people helping out in various ways. Knowing that it is impossible to name everyone without forgetting someone, MacQuarrie did single out executive member Patricia Poirier as her right-hand woman.
MacQuarrie didn’t have the total handle for the season at hand, but she expected it to be down somewhat.
“It’s not as good as it has been, but that’s at every track. I think people don’t have a lot of extra money these days what with the cost of food, gas, everything,” she said.
The handle on the last Sunday was $7,567 – not bad for late October, with a good crowd of locals out enjoying a summer-like day.
Meet-leading driver Redmond Doucet’s Philthy Phil capped off the 100th anniversary season of harness racing on Sunday with a wire-to-wire romp in the afternoon’s featured winners-over pace.
The $2,000 top class closed out the 2026 season as the seventh and final race of the day with Philthy Phil charging out of post five to take a three-length lead into a :28.3 opening panel.
He maintained a commanding lead to the half in :57.4 with the field tightening up heading into the backstretch the final time.
But Philthy Phil was just toying with his rivals and took off again after the 1:27.1 third-quarter mark to win by 6-1/2 lengths in 1:56.2. The time of the mile was just two-fifths of a second off his lifetime mark, taken during his last winning effort on Sept. 27.
The winner returned $4.30 as the slight second choice to Stay Pumped, who was never a factor racing at the back of the six-pack.
McLand and Danny Gillis chased from the pocket to finish second while La Playa Deo and Andrew MacLean followed back in third.
Owned by Doucet and trained by Lennan MacIsaac, the four-year-old son of Shanghai Phil-CMR Maybe Loaded has made all but one of his 15 starts this year over the Inverness half-mile oval, winning seven times, including three races in a row in August, and missing the board just once.
The win for Doucet was his 32nd of the season at Inverness as he wrapped up the driving title with a six-win lead over Zach Mullins (26 wins) in second place. Rodney Gillis (23 wins) rounded out the top three.
There was a tie atop the training standings as D.F. Beaton sent out closing-day winner Mojo Beach to push his local seasonal win total to 18 and tie Mullins for first. Walter Walker finished the meet just two wins off the co-leaders, with 16 victories.