Although the charted lines may show that he won by four and one-half lengths, it was certainly no easy task for Histoire Eternelle to post his fourth straight win at the Hippodrome 3R on Sunday afternoon.
The five-year-old son of Shanghai Phil and driver Marie Claude Auger had to do it the hard way, getting parked on the outside the entire one mile race, but they not only got the job done, but did it in impressive fashion.
Usually racing on the lead early on, Auger left from post eight in the eighth race feature but there was already two horses on the lead in the front of him. Jolts Prayer and driver Pascal Berube went to the early lead but then gave way to Walbert and driver Stephane Brosseau.
And it seemed that Brosseau and Walbert did not want anyone else to pass them by, not even Histoire Eternelle. Past the opening quarter in :27.3, Histoire Eternelle was stuck on the outside. Then past the half mile marker in :57 and still Walbert was on the lead and Histoire Eternelle was parked first-over on the outside through three-quarters in 1:26.3.
Then the time to play games was over and on the final turn Auger and Histoire Eternelle were able to clear to the lead and then they opened up on the field to win going away in 1:56.1. Cevina De Chakrika (Melane Plourde) was second and Walbert held for third place.
It was the fifth win in nine starts for Histoire Eternelle who is trained by Eric Valiquette and is owned and bred by Guy Corbeil of Maribel, QC. He paid $2.40 to win.
It was the second straight training win for Eric Valiquette, who in the prior seventh race, saw his Maximuscle post his third straight win, leading from start to finish in 2:00.
To view results from Sunday's card of harness racing at Hippodrome 3R, click the following link: Sunday Results - Hippodrome 3R
(with files from QJC)