Friday is opening day at Hippodrome 3R
At 0h04, on May 4, 2021 • By NEWSROOM
A 10-race card has been drawn for the opening program of the 2021 harness racing season at Hippodrome 3R, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Friday (May 7).
The richest purse race on the day will be the seventh event on the program, a $6,000 Preferred 1 Pace. Big Petes Style, fastest winner during the qualifying session here last Saturday at 1:59.4, will be looking to make up for lost time as he starts from pole position for driver Marie-Claude Auger and the trainer G Bragagnolo : he has not raced since he was third to Luke and Duke in 1:55.3 at Rideau Carleton on March 28.
The $5,500 co-featured event, slotted for the fifth race, will see Kinnder High Class, who won 10 of 13 starts last season for owner-breeder-trainer Denitza Petrova, taking on Wildwild Men (post eight), third by three-quarter length to Mr Contestant last time out on March 28 at Rideau Carleton.
Murielle Thomassin, director of racing at H3R, explained why H3R is starting off the season on a Friday, mainly because of a lack of racing in Canada.
“There is no doubt about being one of the few racetracks to be running races right now,” Thomassin continued. “We have the approval of Public Health, we have the approval of the Québec Racing Commission, so why not proceed? There are thousands of fans in Canada who are looking forward to getting back to their favourite pastime, and fate has it that we are pretty much one of the only ones in the country to run races. That’s for sure. We’ll look carefully at the mutuel wagering for this first program, and then see how our schedule goes.”
After the Friday card, the next live race day is scheduled on Sunday, May 16 at 12:30 p.m.
Program pages for Hippodrome 3R racing will be available at the website.
