The Hippodrome 3R will turn the lights on come Tuesday night with the start of live harness racing each week at 7 p.m. Due to an overabundance of horses wanting to race, the Quebec Jockey Club elected to begin their Tuesday night race program a week early.

The track will now be open for live racing every Tuesday and Sunday. On Sunday’s post time is 1:00 p.m.

And watching over the first Tuesday night race program will be the aptly named Guard Dog, who is the 3-1 second choice in the seventh race trot.

Trained and driven by Stephane Pouliot, Guard Dog is a seven-year-old gelded son of Muscles Yankee from the Conway Hall mare, Afterglow Hall. He has been first, second or third in 10 of his 13 starts this year and is making his first appearance at Hippodrome 3R, shipping in from Rideau Carleton Raceway.

The race favourite at 5/2 is the lone return winner in the field, Erge Baboche, from post three. He is coming into the race off a tremendous effort in his last start at Hippodrome 3R, getting parked out first-over and still able to grind it out for a victory in 2:02. It was only the second start this year for the seven-year-old gray stallion by Newtown.

Other contenders in the field include Ivanhoe Diamant, who won his qualifying race at Rideau Carleton in a sharp 2:00 last week. Ivanhoe has already won two of his three starts this year. Both Rageur Normand and Beer Maggs can also be factors in the race.

After three Sunday race programs completed, the average win price at Hippodrome 3R continues to rise! With 31 pari-mutuel races held, the average win price per horse rose from $14.50 last week and now stands at an impressive $15.65. This is one of the highest win price averages in all of horse racing. In the first 31 races held only six favourites have won at Hippodrome 3R, or 19.3 percent winning favourites, also a very low percentage.

(Club Jockey du Québec)

To view entries for Tuesday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Tuesday Entries – Hippodrome 3R.