After hosting the 2024 National Driving Championship on Friday, July 5, Hippodrome 3R will focus its spotlight on the locally-based stars for its next card of racing on Sunday, July 7. 

Sunday’s 11-race card, which begins at noon, is topped by the $6,500 Preferred Pace, with a field of nine going to the gate in Race 10. Six of the nine entrants have already beaten 2:00 at Hippodrome 3R this season, and given good weather on Sunday, a clocking in the 1:55-1:56 range may be necessary to win.

The early favourite is Twin B Powerball, who will start from post three for driver Robert Shepherd (who finished third in the NDC), trainer David Pilon and owners Ecurie Francis Richard and Gaston Bibeau. After racing with success in Ontario, the Bettors Delight gelding (pictured above) shipped to 3R last week and promptly won in 1:56, and he could be even tougher with a race over the track.

Also highly-regarded in this collection are two horses who won in this class during June, both trained by Michel Allard: Frozen Hanover (post one, driver Stephane Brosseau) and YS Sensationalcity (the trailing post nine, driver Denis St Pierre).

The stakes season starts at Hippodrome 3R next week with the first round of the Trophée des Éleveurs Series for three-year-olds, to be followed by the initial leg of the Coupe de L’Avenir Series for two-year-olds. Both age brackets will have their championship races on Sunday, Sept. 8, with $480,000 in purse money on the line – annually one of the most exciting days on the local calendar.

Sunday’s co-feature is the third race, a $5,800 purse event for precocious two-year-old pacing fillies looking to prep for their Coupe de L’Avenir action in two weeks time. The two early favourites are Myvaliam (post two, driver William Roy for trainer Guy Roy) and Justine Ray (post five, the most successful post at 3R so far this year, with leading driver Pascal Berube for trainer Yves St. Jacques). The former beat the latter by a length in a 2:04.3 line in their only charted line, but since two-year-olds sometimes develop so rapidly, no one can be ruled out as the young misses steadily learn the racing game.

To view Sunday's entries, click the following link: Sunday Entries - Hippodrome 3R.

(with files from the Quebec Jockey Club)