One of the unsung success stories of Quebec racing these past four years has been trotter Pablo Angus.

Without fanfare, the six-year-old Quebec-bred gelding has accumulated more than $549,000 in earnings. Again this year, he's well into six figures.

In June, Pablo Angus was runner-up to Chick N Tell in 1:53.4 in the $85,000 Prix du Quebec final at Hippodrome de Montreal. In July, he won the $43,000 Jean-Claude St. Jacques Stakes at Sulky Trois-Rivieres in 1:56 - the fastest trotting mile ever at that half-mile track.

When live racing was halted in Montreal, he headed for New York, where he's been a steady performer for new trainer Bertrand Belanger. The Fortuna Winner gelding has been first or second in his last eight appearances at Yonkers and Saratoga, and will start at Saratoga again Friday in the $15,000 Open Trot.

Current owner Mario Bourgea, 52, who has a welding shop in Bedford, QC acquired a half-interest in the trotter for $8,000 when he was a yearling. The seller was trainer Pierre Lacharite, who bought Pablo Angus privately from breeder Pierre Levesque the year before.

The day after the stake win in Trois-Rivieres in July, Lacharite offered to sell Bourgea the rest of the horse. He accepted.

"I think he'll be good for several more years," Bourgea said. "We've been careful with him."

The well-mannered trotter is like a pet, he said, and there'll be a place for him at the family farm, and perhaps a new career as a buggy horse when he's done racing.