Harness racing fans were greeted with late morning snow showers and temperature just above freezing for the 40th and final day of the 2017 race season at the Hippodrome 3R, but the conditions did not deter fans from coming to the track for closing day.
Driver Stephane Brosseau wasted little time in capturing the leading driver honours for the 2017 season at the track. Heading into the final race card, Brosseau held a five-win lead, 51 to 46, over rival Stephane Gendron, but after the second-race pace, the lead for Brosseau grew.
He took Soccer Hanover ($4.00) three-wide in the backstretch after being in eighth place at the half mile. By the three-quarters they not only looped the field, but cleared to the lead before the top of the stretch for the easy win.
Then Stephane Gendron came back with a win in the fifth race pace with Stronski ($11.80), but by that point on the race card, it was too late for Gendron to catch Brosseau. Brosseau won the driving title with 53 wins over 48 for Gendron.
Trainer Francis Richard captured his first-ever leading trainer title with 26 wins from his stable, six more than Yves Tessier (20).
In the co-featured sixth-race trot, Ice O Late and driver Sylvain Lacaille were game enough to go three-wide in the backstretch against first-over Lucky Promesses (Jerome Lombart) and pacesetter R Rkadabra (Pierre Luc Roy) and dug in through the stretch to win by a head in 2:01, paying $9.60 to win. R Rkadabra was second with Torches Angel (Stephane Brosseau) third.
It was the second straight win and seventh victory of the year for Ice O Late. The five-year-old gelded son of Yankee Glide is trained by Luc Chouinard for owner Claude Surprenant of Farnham.
In the eighth race co-featured pace, it was Arazi (Sylvain Lacaille) who cut the mile from the start, but it was the race favourite, Mister Big Top, who would have his photo taken in the winner’s circle.
With After Market (Carol Voyer) sitting the pocket trip, Arazi led the field. Then, at the half mile marker, Code Word (Pascal Berube) came first-over with Mister Big Top and Stephane Gendron second-over, but not for long. Mister Big Top swept three-wide and blew by the field, winning with ease by three and one-quarter lengths in 1:57.1.
It was the ninth win this year for Mister Big Top. The five-year-old gelded son of Mister Big, trained by Yves Tessier, is owned by Francois Morin of Beauceville. He paid $3.80 to win.
Track Notes: Four drivers each had two winners on Sunday. They were Pascal Berube, Stephane Brosseau, Stephane Gendron and Francis Picard. Longshots continued at H3R Sunday, as 33-1 Miss Sangria and driver Francis Picard upset the field with a 1:58.2 lifetime mark in the first-race pace and paid $69.90 to win. While Lucky Promesses did not win today, she did conclude the race season as the winningest horse at H3R in 2017, as she scored eight of her ten wins this year at her home track.
For more information, visit quebecjockeyclub.com.
To view the harness racing results for Sunday at Hippodrome 3R, click the following link: Sunday Results – Hippodrome 3R.
(Quebec Jockey Club)