The future equine stars of harness racing will be in the limelight at the Hippodrome 3R on Sunday with the opening round of the $200,000 Quebec-Bred Series for two-year-old pacing colts and fillies.

There are four divisions on the program, two for fillies and two for colts. After three weeks of preliminary competition, the top eight point-earners in each division will return to 3R on Sunday, September 6 for their respective $65,000 finals.

The colts do battle in the second and fourth races. The early standout in the colt division is Mr Mach Jimmy. He starts from the rail in the second race as the 5-2 morning line favourite despite being winless in four starts. Sired by Mach Three, Mr Mach Jimmy has been racing mainly at Mohawk Racetrack and even though he is still a maiden, he has been race timed in 1:55.4 twice, one being a third-place finish in an $18,000 division of the Ontario Sires Stakes. The Dany Fontaine trainee will be driven by Pascal Berube.

The fourth race, second colt division shines the spotlight on local performer Sagawi. Sired in Quebec by Goliath Bayama, Sagawi enters the series off an impressive 2:01 triumph at 3R in late July. In that race, the Andre Crete trainee wired the field for driver Francis Picard.

Two other contenders in the field who are still both maidens are Cronos from post three for driver Marie Claude Auger and Chummy Park from post four to be driven by Stephane Brosseau.

The fillies are in the limelight in the first and fifth races on the Sunday program.

The first race is a wide-open affair with the early favourite’s role going to the Bayama Farms' Xena Bayama from post four. Trained and driven by Yves Filion, the homebred daughter of Leader Bayama won at 3R two starts back and last week was race timed in 2:01.3.

In the fifth race, HP Sissy is the early favourite starting from post three for driver Guy Gagnon and trainer Jean Tourigny. After six starts, she is still a maiden, but has shown great speed. Sired by Up The Credit, HP Sissy has been racing mainly at Mohawk where she was second in her last start by a head in 1:56.3. Earlier this season, she has been race timed as fast as 1:54.4. HP Sissy made her debut at 3R back on June 28 where she raced against sophomore fillies in her career debut and was fourth, timed in 2:01.2, so she has proven she can handle a half-mile track.

Track Notes:

There will be a press conference for the drawings of post positions for the $200,000 Prix D’Ete field on Thursday, August 20 starting at 10:30 a.m. The emcee for the event will be track announcer Guy LaFontaine.

All Bets Off, one of the leading candidates for the Prix D’Ete, was second in the $307,500 Dan Patch Stakes at Hoosier Park on Friday. His stablemate, Limelight Beach, was fifth. Both horses hail from the Ron Burke Stable and are expected to be entered in the Prix D’Ete.

Trainer Rene Allard has committed Big Boy Dreams to race in the Prix D’Ete. He is hoping to make it a double next weekend as he hopes to win the Gold Cup & Saucer on Prince Edward Island Saturday and then will come right to Trois-Rivieres for the Prix D’Ete.

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

(With files from QJC)