The CKG Billings Amateur Driving Series visits Maine this weekend, with stops at Scarborough Downs on Saturday evening and at Bangor Raceway on Sunday afternoon. The participants in the Billings competition are exclusively amateur drivers, and the tour stops at nearly every track in North America. Competition throughout the several month long campaign will determine the field for the lucrative final to be held in New Jersey this fall. Though most of the drivers competing in Maine this weekend will be from out of state, at least two Maine horsemen will represent the Pine Tree State. Todd Whitney of Auburn is a Billings regular, and last season he competed at ten different venues. Bill Varney of Bangor is also a staple of the tour, and both Whitney and Varney will see action Saturday night in Scarborough. 

After carding the season’s most impressive program last Sunday, Bangor Raceway offers another excellent card Friday. Four divisions of the Maine Standardbred Breeders Stakes, a late closing final, and a Winners Over pace are included on the program. The Queen City track hosts a pair of divisions each in the two and three-year-old pacing filly classes of the sire stakes, highlighted by yet another clash between three-year old fillies Baton and Blond Moment.  The two rivals, who have won three of the first four MSBS events of the season, square off in the evening’s fifth race which goes for a purse of $6,493. The other division for sophomore pacing fillies has been scheduled in the first race, followed in the second of the daily double by the $5,100 final of the Marshall Crandall Pacing Series. A $3,000 Winners Over pace has been carded in the feature race slot, highlighted by the return of Jates Skyhawk. Owned by hometown horseman Bill Varney, Jates Skyhawk is seeking his fifth consecutive win following his victory in last week’s feature event at Scarborough. Two divisions of sire stakes action for two-year-old pacing fillies will also be contested on the Friday card as non-betting events. On Saturday Bangor again plays hosts to the MSBS, as three-year-old trotters take center stage. In the $6,310 division for fillies, Special Move faces eight challengers as she looks for her eighth lifetime win in as many starts

In addition to the Billings action, Scarborough’s Saturday card features a Winners Over $5,000 Lifetime pace that includes several new faces. Headlining the field is Lastline Hanover, owned by Tom Dillon of Anson. A winner of four of a dozen starts and nearly $40,000 this season, Lastline Hanover is both the fastest and richest pacer in the field in 2005. Also making his first start of the season in Maine is Artchie Andrews, who is owned by the Windsor Kon X Tion of Augusta. Artchie Andrews has been racing exclusively at Rockingham and Plainridge, and earlier this year took a lifetime mark of 1:54.2 at the Massachusetts track. Superman’s Cape, owned and trained by Phil Lyons of Buxton, is another newcomer to this class. He enters Saturday’s race off a lifetime best of 1:54.3 at Plainridge last Tuesday.  

Racing fans will be treated to feature events at both Bangor and Scarborough on Sunday. Trotting will be the theme at Bangor, as the stop by the CKG Billings tour is the opening act for the $4,000 Anah Shrine Trot. The annual event, which is the featured trotting race of the year at Bangor, will likely feature another clash between Stars Photo and Classic Andy. Last weekend, their battle produced the fastest trotting mile of the year in Maine, when Stars Photo stopped the teletimer in 2:00 flat. 

Sire stake action in the two and three-year-old pacing colts and geldings divisions of the MSBS will be featured at Scarborough. The Sunday card will also include the state’s feature race of the week for fillies and mares, and Scarborough will also host an appearance by the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Association. Most, if not all, of the horses performing during Sundays program will be former harness horses that have been re-trained as riding horses now that their careers on the track are over. 

Post time at Bangor is at 7:30 P.M. on Friday and Saturday, and at 1:30 P.M. on Sunday. Scarborough Downs goes to post at 7:00 P.M. Friday and Saturday evening, and at 3:30 P.M. on Sunday.