Three-year-old trotting filly Miche Charm will take aim at a sweep of the Trophée des Éleveurs Series after completing a perfect record through the three preliminary legs on Friday, Aug. 1 at Hippodrome 3R.
Driver Guy Gagnon worked out a perfect pocket trip for Miche Charm ($4.80) in the lone $10,000 third leg division for fillies, sitting behind fractions of :28.3, :59 and 1:29 before overtaking the front-striding Greenleaf (Stephane Brosseau) in the stretch and holding off the late-closing longshot Soleo (Simon Delisle) by half a length to win in 1:59.2, just a tick off her career-best clocking from the first leg. Trainer Jeremy Marcotte and Denis Marcotte share ownership of the Muscle Mass-Exquisite Charm filly, who was third in her divisional championship last year following a pair of prelim victories. The other winners in the opening legs of this series, favourite Chic Choc Rose and Kinnder Kahina, both broke stride at the start.
A new winner emerged in the colt and gelding division as Claude Hamel and Danielle Fournier-Levesque's homebred HP Lucas ($8.50) prevailed in 1:59.4 following a pair of third-place finishes to start the series. With Pascal Berube driving for trainer Daniel Martin, the Alarm Detector-HP Run Like Mom gelding was parked well past the :58.4 half-mile mark before making the lead then held off Cleveland Z Flash (Robert Shepherd) by three-quarters of a length. It was more than eight lengths back to third-place finisher Im Just A Gigolo (Jerome Lombart) while Mass Speed (Denis St. Pierre), the defending divisional champion who had dominated the first two legs of this series, finished fourth as the 4-5 favourite.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Hippodrome 3R.
(Standardbred Canada)