The Mach Three mare D Gs Fairystars, enjoying the drop in class from the top level of competition among distaffs at Hippodrome 3R, used the rail to maximum advantage in going wire-to-wire in 1:57.4 to take the $4,000 Preferred 3 mares pace during the Friday twilight card at the Quebec half-mile oval.

Driver/trainer/owner Michel Audet left strongly with D Gs Fairystars and controlled the engine throughout the race with fractions of :27.3, :58.1, and 1:27.3, with favoured Platine Alpha, bidding for her fourth straight win, right on her back. After the first-over bid of second choice Jessicas Legacy stalled, the favourite moved to challenge the pacesetter, who at 27-1 was the longest shot on the board, but the chalk’s long bid came up a neck shy, with Tobins Terror only another half-length back.

D Gs Fairystars recorded her first win of the season, and her $56.70 win mutuel stood in stark contrast to the first half of the card, which saw the favorites go five-for-five.

Driving doubles on the card were turned in by Marie Claude Auger, Stephane Gendron, and Pascal Berube; Berube has now driven 11 winners during the first seven cards of the year to lead the sulky sitting colony. Sylvain Tremblay harnessed a winner Friday and now tops all trainers with six wins on the season.

Sunday’s card at 3R, which begins at 12:30 p.m., features three $5,500 Preferred 1 - 2 Handicap races for the top horses racing at the oval. The first race trot finds Bucketlist Hanover, the fastest trotter of the year locally at 1:57.3, starting from the rail in that group’s headliner. Pacing mares are featured in race three, with Y C Easy, last week’s winner in this class, going for her third straight win from post six. And the fastest horse of 2021 at 3R, Mickeymaksomespeed (1:54.3), faces older foes in the top pacing class, but he’ll have to solve the difficult post seven.

(Hippodrome 3R)