The Magic Moment returned to the scene of his Quebec stakes championship victory last summer and picked up where he left off at Hippodrome 3R as three-year-old pacers took their turn competing in the Trophée des Éleveurs opening leg on Sunday afternoon, July 13.

Reunited with driver Jonathan Lachance in the first $10,000 preliminary division for pacing colts and geldings, trailing tier starter The Magic Moment ($6.10) landed in fourth through a contested :27.3 opening quarter before advancing first-over through middle splits of :57 and 1:26.3 to take on the favoured leader Winchester Phoenix (Stephane Brosseau) and the tracking HP Bellissimo (Pierre-Luc Roy) in a stretch duel that ended with the reigning divisional stakes champ prevailing in the three-way finish by half a length in 1:55.3. Trained by Francis Guillemette, the Control The Moment-Wind River Cat gelding is now five-for-nine lifetime with $52,290 earned for breeder Gestion A&A Belanger Inc. and co-owner Cynthia Cote Dupont of Shawinigan, Que.

Lachance and Guillemette also teamed up to take one of the two $7,500 pacing filly prelims with Justine Ray ($6.80), owned by Michel Letendre, Saint-Jude, Que. The grey daughter of Shadow Play out of Woes Jet Filly progressed first-over from mid-pack heading in front of the grandstand the first time as Coeuratout De Lac (Pierre-Luc Roy) led the way through fractions of :28.3, :59.1 and 1:29.1. Those two gained separation from the rest of the field during the final lap with Justine Ray eventually drawing 3-1/4 lengths clear in the stretch to defeat the 1-2 favourite in a career-best 1:58 clocking. Islamabad (Francis Picard) rounded out the top three finish order, ahead of defending divisional champion Mirabel Enfete (Simon Delisle) in her season's debut. Notching her first win of the year, Justine Ray improved her lifetime record to 4-4-4 in 16 starts while her bankroll climbed to $35,097.

Silver Majesty ($2.10) was the overwhelming favourite in the slightly faster filly division and easily overcame an outside post seven start to win in wire-to-wire fashion for trainer Jean-Francois Maguire. Denis St. Pierre guided the 1-9 bettors' choice through panels of :28.3, :58.4 and 1:28.1 en route to the 1:57.4 triumph, with Madame Panic (Marie-Claude Auger) following 3-1/2 lengths behind in the pocket and Serenity Road (Sylvain Lacaille) coming on for third. The All Bets Off-Acaena De Chakrika filly was a runner-up in the Quebec freshman filly championship last year and a Bombardier Stakes winner. She now boasts nine career wins to go along with five other top three finishes from 18 starts and a bankroll of $60,050 for owner Silver Stables and Marie Michelle Gaboury of Venise-En-Quebec, Que.

In Preferred action, Self Made topped a field of a half-dozen pacers to take the lion's share of the $5,500 purse for trainer/driver Stephane Brosseau and owners Robert Bergeron and Chantal Trepanier of Laval, Que. The six-year-old Fear The Dragon-Arrivista Hanover gelding led at every call and held off the overland Perpetual Rock (Marie-Claude Auger) by three-quarters of a length at the end in 1:55.2, with pocket-sitter Uncontrollable (Denis St. Pierre) edging out the late-closing favourite, Light The Torch (Pascal Berube), in a show photo. Claimed for $40,000 in January at Woodbine Mohawk Park, the career winner of more than a quarter-million dollars has won four of his nine seasonal starts and 21 races lifetime.

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

(Standardbred Canada)