Top fast-class performers all set to go at H3R Sunday

The best fast-class performers at Hippodrome 3R will be featured during the 12:00 race card on Sunday – there will be Preferred events for trotters, male pacers, and female pacers.

In the sixth race $6000 Preferred 2-3 handicap trot, early favoritism has been given to P C Heisenberg, a Cornero Desolo gelding who will start from post five (the top win-producing post at 3R this season so far) for driver Jocelyn Gendron and trainer Mario Dumas, the latter co-owner with Andre Boucher. P C Heisenberg last week was a close second to the streaking Stella Alpha in the fastest trot mile of the year locally, 1:58; no doubt P C Heisenberg and his seven opponents will welcome the absence of Stella Alpha from this Sunday’s field.

The non-entry of a recently-dominant horse is also a theme in the two Preferred events for pacers. D Gs DeVito was not entered in the $6000 Preferred 2-3 handicap pace for males in race eight, giving a better opportunity to early favorite Siddhartha, who had held the fastest local mile of the year distinction at 1:54.4 until DGs De Vito left that far behind with a smashing 1:52.1 tally last week, with Siddhartha a game but distant second. The So Surreal gelding will begin from post seven as the morning line favorite for driver/trainer/owner Louis Philippe Turcotte.

The 2-3-4 finishers behind red-hot La Petite Grise in Friday’s female feature will all have a better chance in Sunday’s $5500 Preferred 3 mares pace since that streaking distaff will not be coming right back. The Riverboat King mare Bettimontheriver sat second behind La Petite Grise Friday and was only 1¼ lengths behind her at the finish, but Bettimontheriver’s chance may be just as tough here as she begins from post seven in the eight-horse field for driver Jocelyn Gendron, trainer Yannick Martel, and owner James Martel.

Several younger horses on the card will be putting the finishing touches on their preparation for the Québec-bred stakes season, which begins Friday, July 15. In the paddock, they may be well-advised to stop by the stalls of two other Sunday 3R entrants: Atomic Million AM (race two), the only pacer to win four Québec championships in the modern era, and Wildwild Men (race six), a championship winner at ages two and four and still the 3R track recordholder for two-year-old trotting geldings seven years afterwards.

Driver Pascal Berube, who had 37 winners through the first fourteen cards of the year at 3R, will undoubtedly be looking to bounce back after a “slow” night Friday, during which his only winner was Le Petite Grise. Last week Berube and Samuel Fillion qualified at 3R for the Canadian Driving Championship, with the top finalist in that event going on to the World Driving Championship in Italy next year.