What are the odds of three unrelated horsemen from a small town in Quebec's remote Gaspe Peninsula all qualifying for the National Driving Championship in Alberta, with a chance to represent Canada at the World Driving Championship in Europe in 2023?
Louis-Philippe Roy, Pascal Berube and Samuel Fillion all hail from Mont-Joli, which has a population of just over 6,000. They'll all be at Century Mile racetrack for the Canadian championship in November.
*All stats as of Oct. 23, 2022.
"We're friends," said Fillion, "but we all want to win."
Youngest of the three, Samuel Fillion is just 25 and a little over two years into his professional career.
The Canadian championship will be just the second driving competition in which he's been a participant. He won the Quebec and Eastern Ontario qualifying competition in June at Hippodrome 3R to advance to the national event.
"I guess my average so far is pretty good," he quipped over the phone from his current base in Guelph, Ont.
Fillion and Roy are close, and he said Roy has been his main inspiration and model as a driver. He didn't know Berube until the two competed together at Hippodrome 3R in Trois-Rivieres, where Fillion became a full-time driver in 2020.
Pascal Berube and Samuel Fillion after the Quebec-Eastern Ontario Regional Driving Championship
He still drives in Trois-Rivieres occasionally, but Rideau Carleton Raceway in Ottawa is his main track now. He's currently third in the driver standings at Rideau behind perennial leader Guy Gagnon and Berube.
"But I've raced at just about every track in Ontario," he noted. "I'm always in my car."
Although less experienced than most of his rivals at the Canadian championship, Fillion isn't conceding anything.
"You really don't know how a horse will respond for a different driver. Maybe you'll do better with him than somebody else. That's what makes it interesting. I know I'm a better driver than I was, especially with young horses. I'm working hard at it, every day."
The one-mile track in Edmonton will be a new experience, but cold temperatures -- always a possibility out west in November -- won't be an issue for him.
"It gets really cold in Mont-Joli in the winter," he said. "Anyway, I'll have my winter suit."
Fillion, who on Saturday (Oct. 22) surpassed the million-dollar mark in seasonal earnings for the first time in his career, said he hasn't given much thought to winning the Canadian championship. He's still processing the fact he's even in the national final.
"Just to be part of the [regional] tournament in Trois-Rivieres was big for me," he said. "I knew some of the horses there, which helped, but winning it was still unbelievable. Now we're going to Alberta. It's a great honour. I'm really happy to be there. And you never know what can happen."
(A Trot Insider exclusive by Paul Delean)