Racing fans enjoy coming back to the races at H3R

Mother Nature provided a beautiful sunny afternoon for the return of harness racing fans to the Hippodrome 3R Saturday.

Before the first race went off at 1:00 pm, more than 100 fans were already at the track and there were still more than 50 cars parked in the backstretch with fans watching on lawn chairs through the fence.

The special Saturday afternoon program was devoted to the Quebec Regional Fair Circuit as will the races again next Saturday (June 19).

Two-year-old trotters and pacers made their pari-mutuel debuts and both the trot and the pace were won by horses bred, owned and trained by Sylvain Tremblay and his Alpha Stable of Metabetchouan.

In the second race trot for the babies, Stella Alpha (Pascal Berube) was stretched out going to the opening quarter mile by Crazy Lilly (Sylvain Fontaine), but once on the lead the filly by Royalty For Life – Éclair Chocolat – Muscle Mass led the rest of the way, winning by one and one-half lengths in 2:10.2.

Crazy Lilly (Crazed) was second with LA Surprenante (Holiday Road, Simon Delisle) third.

The two-year-old pace also saw Ritchie Alpha (Pascal Berube) parked out to the opening quarter mile by Girl Scout Cookie (Marie Claude Auger) before taking command and leading the rest of the way with a 2:03.2 triumph by three lengths. Girl Scout Cookie (State Treasurer) held for second with Godiva Me Amour (Shanghai Phil, Stephane Brosseau) third.

Trainer Sylvain Tremblay also started a two-year-old pacing colt against three-year-olds in the first race and Titanium Alpha, a son of He’s Watching, nearly wired the field with Berube in the sulky, losing by one length to the favorite, Super FM (Samuel Fillion) in 2:01.

Perhaps the most exciting race of the day was the eighth race pace for amateur drivers. It was a dogfight from the start as It’s Machademic (Jonathan Gagnon) parked out race favorite Jeff’s Journey to a fast-opening quarter mile of :27.2 with Stock (Gino Bilodeau) also parked out.

Then to the half mile in :57.1 as Ninoscredit (Eric Dechamplain) tried a coming second over and then third over was Yankee Up and driver Ghslain Paquet.

In the backstretch, Paquet took Yankee Up three-wide and was able to collar pacesetter Jeff’s Journey by the three-quarters in 1:27.1. Although bearing out on the final turn, Yankee Up still had something left in the tank coming down the stretch, winning by two lengths in 1:58. Jeff’s Journey was second with Matts Phil (Antone Desrochers) third.

Paquet, a prominent internet journalist in Quebec who covers harness racing, has been an amateur driver off and on for years. Yankee Up paid $7.40 to win.

Track Notes: Driver Pascal Berube and trainer Sylvain Tremblay each sent out three winners on the afternoon. Marie Claude Auger, who was taken to the hospital last week after being involved in a race accident at H3R, was back driving today. David Pilon was not so lucky as he is sidelined for months from the accident as he suffered multiple fractures in his legs. Trainer and friend Francis Richard has set up a gofundme page to help pay the amounting costs to David Pilon from the accident. The site is at Fundraiser by Francis Richard : On se serre les coudes pour David (gofundme.com) and is in both French and English.

Live racing resumes Sunday at the Hippodrome 3R with a ten-race card that will get underway at 12:30 pm. Featured will be two Preferred-Handicapped pacing events for the horses and mares. For more information or a free race program, visit www.hippodrome3r.ca.