Uncontrollable controlled the featured $6,500 Preferred Handicap Pace at Hippodrome 3R on Sunday afternoon, as the 15-1 shot overcame a hard journey to stop the timer in 1:54.1 – the fastest mile of the year at the Quebec half-miler.

Red-hot driver Marie-Claude Auger settled the winning son of Control The Moment in fourth early as favoured Twin B Powerall (Robert Shepherd) made the top soon after the start, then yielded to second choice Frozen Hanover (Stephane Brosseau) before a :28 quarter.

Frozen Hanover had Uncontrollable coming the uncovered route to the :57.1 half, and after a protracted battle, Uncontrollable went by the pacesetter nearing the 1:25.3 three-quarters.

Uncontrollable was not home free yet, though, as Twin B Powerball found room to come out behind him and narrowed in through the lane, but Auger got enough out of her horse to keep the favourite at bay by three-quarters of a length. Y S Sensationalcity (Denis St. Pierre) finished third.

Louis-Philippe Turcotte handles the training for owners Steve Perreault and Johanne Dechamplain, both of Mont Joli, Que. Uncontrollable earned his fourth win of the season to go along with four second-place finishes from a dozen starts. He returned $32.70 for the upset.

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 the next week 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 was 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. It went to the Shadow Play-Woes Jet Filly filly Justine Ray, who went wire-to-wire from the outside post five in 2:03 for driver Pascal Berube, trainer Yves St. Jacques and owner Michel Letendre of Saint-Jude, Que.

Making her career debut, Justine Ray made the top off the first turn, went to the quarter in :30.2 and then was given a breather by Berube to the half in 1:03. From there, there was no catching her, as she got to the three-quarters in 1:34 and then sizzled home in :29 to exact revenge on second-place Myvailiam, who had beaten Justine Ray in a qualifying race.

3R’s leading driver, Berube paraded back four winners on the afternoon; feature winner Auger had two. David Pilon was the only trainer who harnessed a pair of winners.

3R continues with its Friday at 4 p.m. / Sunday at noon schedule this coming week. As noted above, the three-year-olds will inaugurate the 2024 stakes season locally with first round preliminaries in the Trophée des Éleveurs Series, with trotters of both sexes set for Friday and their pacing counterparts on Sunday. Voukefalas, who won the Graduate Series final at The Meadowlands on Saturday evening in 1:47.3, along with 2-3 finishers No Control and Act Fast, are eligible to 3R’s signature race, the $200,000 Prix d’Été, to be held Sunday afternoon, Aug. 16.

To view Sunday's harness racing results, click the following link: Sunday Results - Hippodrome 3R.

(With files from Hippodrome 3R)