Promesses Imperial made it three straight wins at the Hippodrome 3R on Wednesday, but the young colt was tested big time as he made two three-wide moves in the race.
Driven by Jerome Lombart, Promesses Imperial tried leaving from post five in the sixth race feature trot at 3R only to find that SOS Afterthestorm (Francine Morrissette) was on the lead fighting with SOS Justice (Michel Fontaine), so Lombart wisely backed Promesses Imperial away from the dogfight and settled in fourth place.
Meanwhile, SOS Afterthestorm stung SOS Justice to a :28.3 opening quarter-mile. Then they went to the half-mile in a speedy :58 as Lombart started Promesses Imperial first-over and they were able to flush SOS Afterthestorm from the pocket in the backstretch, but he was not advancing enough so Lombart asked his colt to try again and they tipped out three-wide.
Past the three-quarters in 1:29.1, SOS Justice still had the lead and Bouffon P V (Yves St Jacques) joined the fight fanning four-wide trying to loop the field as they started down the stretch.
But Promesses Imperial proved to be the strong horse as he came on in the stretch and then held off a late charge by Dance Hall George (Gaetan Lamy) to win by three-quarters of a length in 2:01.3. There was a dead-heat for third between Bouffon P V and SOS Robocop (Stephane Brosseau).
Not only was it the third straight win for Promesses Imperial, it was also a lifetime mark as the three-year-old homebred colt by Imperial Angus continues to improve as he prepares for the upcoming Quebec-Bred Series.
Promesses Imperial is owned and was bred by Lombart and is trained by Andreane Lapierre. He paid $6.30 to win.
Longshots were the order of the night at 3R. Starting in the first race with Gringo ($73.40), the seventh race with The Platinum Guy ($20.30), the eighth race with Amanda Star ($48.80) and the ninth race with Shanghai Ben ($71.70).
Driver Denis St Pierre had the hot hands Wednesday, winning four of his five drives on the program.
Management at the Hippodrome 3R announced today that first race post time for regular racing program on Wednesday, June 24 will be advanced to 1:30 p.m. instead of 7:00 p.m. In addition, the post time for the qualifiers scheduled before this racing program will be advanced from 6:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Live racing resumes Sunday with first race post time at 1:30 p.m.
To view Wednesday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Wednesday Results - Hippodrome 3R.
(With files from QJC)