Quebec Champion back in at Hippodrome 3R
At 2h22, on September 17, 2023 • By Steven Wolf
Kingston Panic (Sportswriter), fresh off his impressive victory last week in the $65,000 Quebec Championship for three-year-old pacers, returns to the Hippodrome 3R Sunday (Sept. 17).
The bay gelding, trained by David Pilon for the estate of Brian Paquet, will be gunning for his third straight win and will have driver Robert Shepherd in the sulky. They start from post five in the 7th race pace and are the 5/2 morning line favorite.
Last week in the championship final, it was Louis-Philippe Roy in the sulky as Kingston Panic came from off the pace to score a one and three-quarter length triumph in 1:55.3. It was a lifetime mark for Kingston Panic. The prior week it was Robert Shepherd winning with Kingston Panic.
In his last six starts, Kingston Panic has two straight wins and prior to that he was second four straight times, all at H3R.
The trotters are in the limelight Sunday in the 8th race co-feature where return winner Goaltender (Wheeling N Dealin), fresh off his victory just one day ago at H3R on Friday.
In that race, Goaltender and driver Francis Picard swung four-wide on the final turn and out trotted the field to the wire, winning by one and one-quarter lengths in 2:01 for his third score this year.
He will again be driven by Picard and they start from post three.
Packing a one-two punch in the race will be the entry from trainer Sylvain Tremblay of Stella Alpha (Royalty For Life) and Keepall (Angus Hall).
Stella Alpha from post four is the stronger part of the entry as she is the princess of trot at H3R, having won 11 times last year. This season she sports just two wins, but two starts back she romped by seven and one-half lengths in 1:59 for regular driver Pascal Berube.
Keepall drew the rail for driver Jocelyn Gendron and three starts back scored his lone win of the 2023 season with a 2:00.3 victory on the front-end.
Post time Sunday is 12:00 noon for the ten-race program.
