The theme of the day at Hippodrome 3R on Sunday afternoon was “longshots,” as a track with a 46.2 percent chalk rate and a $9.65 average payoff heading into the card produced as many winning favourites (four) as horses who paid $18.50, and as second-place finishers who were 36-1 or higher. Four times the Superfecta was not covered in the fourth position, producing an “all” situation.
Neither favourite got the job done in the two $4,200 “non-winners of $20,000 lifetime” events, one at each gait, although trotter Brise Du Large came close—he set the pace, but missed by a nose holding off “pocket rocket” Dance Hall George, a Cash Hall gelding who took a new mark of 2:02.2 for driver Gaetan Lamy and trainer/owner Jean Toulouse.
In the pacing event, the Bolero Master sophomore colt Magster kept the pocket tight early as 43-1 shot HP Rayan Art Jules wouldn’t let the 2-5 choice D Gs Ninja go through fractions over :28, :59.3, and 1:31.3 over a track that got heavier from mid-card on, stayed in some more when the favourite melted from the battle, and used the passing lane to finally catch the stubborn front-runner by a half-length in 2:03. Lamy again found the pocket the winning place to be as Magster won for trainer Kevin Maguire and Ecuries Maguire Inc.
Steeven Genois (no typo; he’s known as “3 Es at 3R”) put the Kadabra gelding R Rkadabra, dismissed at 14-1 despite winning his last race, on the lead in a $4,000 trot, rattled off splits of :28.1, :58.3, and 1:29.2, and then kept his horse alive in the face of a big comeback from early-miscuing favuorite Uncle Freddie, winning in 2:01 for trainer Marc Lemay and his Gestion Marc Lemay Inc.
No one should have been surprised at Genois’s tactics in this trot – in a $3,600 pace, conducted just before the rains came, he sent 6-1 shot Trys Little Prince on a turnpike try with fractions of :27.1, :56, and 1:25.2, only to be nabbed by a neck by favoured D J Power in 1:56.1. D J Power is a Major In Art gelding with the winning touch, running his record to nine victories in 17 seasonal starts, with Pierre-Luc Roy, who had the day’s other driving double, having sulky duty for trainer/owner Jean Marc Roy.
Finally, there is the interesting story of Reposession, a freshman gelding who beat older horses in a lifetime-best of 1:59.3 for driver Stephane Gendron and trainer Yves Tessier (both leading their percentage categories at 3R) – and how he connects to the biggest stable in North America, the winner of 3R’s Prix D’Ete in two of its three editions. The breeding of Reposession is directly traceable to western Pennsylvania (by way of New Zealand) and the formidable Ron Burke / Weaver Bruscemi empire, with partners on each side of the breeding.
Reposession is a son of Foreclosure N, who won $800,000 in top company after being purchased as a yearling from New Zealand, stood in Ohio for a year, and now is at stud in Ireland; his mom is Pupetta, who like Foreclosure N was raced by Burke in the latter stages of their careers. Reposession was a 1:58 horse in the Ohio Sire Stakes this summer, which wasn’t what his ownership had in mind, so local owner Francois Morin purchased the horse at the end of August, and his two-for-three record at 3R shows he’s prospering in his new home.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Hippodrome 3R.
(With files from QJC)