Quebec owner and breeder Guy Corbeil is having a great run in Ontario.
When Histoire Enchantee won an Ontario Sires Stakes Gold event for three-year-old pacers at Mohawk this week, it was the third Gold triumph this year for Corbeil's eight-horse stable of homebreds from Mirabel, QC.
His three-year-old Muscle Mass trotter Capteur De Reve captured the other two, a $64,800 event at Rideau Carleton Raceway on Aug. 11 and a $95,600 stake at Mohawk on Sept. 25.
Quebec native Sylvain Filion was in the sulky for all three victories. In fact, Filion has won with his last six drives for Corbeil in Ottawa and Campbellville, including a 1:50.1 score at Mohawk with Histoire Enchantee in an overnight race on Sept. 25, the fastest race mile ever by a Corbeil-bred horse.
"It feels awfully good to have a stretch like this. Sylvain is doing great work in the bike. So is (trainer) Max Velaye," said Corbeil. who used to train his own horses but entrusted the task to Velaye a couple of years ago in order to focus on racetrack management as a member of the board of the non-profit Quebec Jockey Club. His Ecurie Provoqante was a powerhouse in the last two decades of racing in Montreal, and remains a prominent player at Rideau Carleton and Hippodrome 3R.
Corbeil, who also had a Gold win in 2014 with trotter Maximuscle, said it's "quite a sensation to win at the big tracks with our own breeding. And I'm not the only Quebec breeder doing it. Yves Filion also won a Gold this week (with homebred three-year-old pacing filly Yaris Bayama). The winner of the Grassroots final (for three-year-old pacing colts, Sportswriter son Wildriverbumblebee) also got his start in Quebec. It shows how breeding Quebec mares to outside stallions and racing at H3R can produce good horses and be a springboard to bigger things. I`m happy to see it."
Histoire Enchantee's late-season heroics probably won't be enough to get the Shanghai Phil gelding into the OSS Super Final on Oct. 14 -- he's currently 13th in the point standings, and will need defections to draw in -- but Capteur De Reve will make the cut. He also competed in the Super Final last year, finishing third at odds of 37-1.
(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Paul Delean)