Racing over a sloppy, rain-soaked track with a three second allowance by the judges, Partyintheshadows was able to grind it out first-over against pacesetter D Gs De Vito in capturing the feature pace as one of three winners for trainer David Pilon on Sunday, Oct. 8 at Hippodrome 3R.
In the afternoon's featured $5,000 sixth race, Shanghaibluebeach (Marie-Claude Auger) went right to the lead with Delicate Sound (Pascal Berube) grabbing the pocket seat, but D Gs De Vito (Jonathan Lachance) was coming first-over and took command of the field by the first quarter in :29. Partyintheshadows and driver Robert Shepherd were following second-over from the start.
As the field raced to the half-mile, 1-9 favourite Partyintheshadows moved up first-over, giving cover to GA Speed Gaby (Francis Picard), who was trying for his fifth straight win. The half-mile went in :58.2.
Down the backstretch, D Gs De Vito continued to lead the field with Partyintheshadows looking him right in the eyes when they passed the three-quarters in 1:28 with GA Speed Gaby swinging three-wide to try and mount a challenge.
In the stretch drive, Partyintheshadows and Shepherd finally wore down pacesetter D Gs De Vito and went on to win by half a length in 1:58.2 -- the fastest mile on the nine-race card. D Gs De Vito held for second place with GA Speed Gaby third.
The win was the fourth in 34 starts this season for Partyintheshadows, who is owned by Francois Morin. The five-year-old Shadow Play gelding returned $2.30 to win.
The feature win was the highlight of a Sunday training triple for Pilon, who was tied at 23 wins at 3R with Marc-Andre Simoneau and took the lead as top local trainer, now with 25 wins to Simoneau’s 24 wins. Pilon also teamed up with Shepherd for his other victories with Kansas Panic ($3) and Kingston Panic ($3.50).
Live harness racing resumes at 3R next Sunday, Oct. 15 with first race post time at 12 noon.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click the following link: Sunday Results - Hippodrome 3R.
(With files from Quebec Jockey Club)