Mass Speed and Miche Charm were repeat winners in the second preliminary leg of the Trophée des Éleveurs for three-year-old trotters on Friday, July 18 at Hippodrome 3R.

Mass Speed ($3) continued to dominate the colt and gelding trotting division with most of the field making breaks before the quarter pole in the $10,000 preliminary contest. The 1-2 favourite was on top by more than half a dozen lengths after a :29.2 opening panel with five of his foes misfiring. Cleveland Z Flash (Robert Shepherd) was the only other trotter to stay flat but posed not threat to the leader as he chased more than two lengths behind. Mass Speed clocked middle splits of 1:00.2 and 1:30.3 before cruising to the wire in 2:00.1. Michel Allard trains and owns the homebred Muscle Mass-Missionoftheheart gelding, who is two-for-two in the series as he looks to defend his divisional title and sports a career summary reading 8-4-1 from 17 starts.

Trainer Jeremy Marcotte and co-owner Denis Marcotte's Miche Charm ($2.40) was also a repeat winner, leading at every call in a two-minute mile to take one of the two $7,500 prelims for the filly division. A four-time Friday winner, Pascal Berube picked up the live catch-drive and put the Muscle Mass-Exquisite Charm miss on the front through a :29.3 opening quarter then clocked middle fractions of 1:00.1 and 1:30.3 en route to the 1-3/4-length triumph over a pesky Greenleaf (Stephane Brosseau), with longshot Soleo (Simon Delisle) rounding out the top three and last year's divisional champion Kinnder Kahina (Robert Shepherd) fourth after her opening leg victory last week. Miche Charm, the 1-5 bettors' choice, followed up a 1:59.2 career-best score in round one while improving her lifetime record to 4-2-4 from 13 starts.

Chic Choc Rose ($2.80) was no match for her rivals in the other filly prelim, winning in a 16-1/4-length romp. The 2-5 favourite expanded her lead with every stride as she clocked fractions of :30.3, 1:00.3 and 1:30.1 on the way to her own 2:00 score. Diara (Pascal Berube) and Silver Manalishi (Denis St. Pierre) were the best of the rest. Trainer/driver Marie-Claude Auger bred and co-owns the Royalty For Life-Torches Angel filly with 9129 9560 Quebec Inc. and Arianne Girard. Chic Choc Rose has now won half of her 12 career starts, with three other on-the-board finishes, including a third-place result in the opening leg.

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

(Standardbred Canada; photo of Miche Charm winning on July 18)