After winning three of his four drives this past Sunday at the Hippodrome 3R, all of them track record performances, what could harness racing driver Denis St Pierre do to upstage that performance?
How about coming back on Tuesday evening and winning five races?
That is exactly what St. Pierre did, capturing half of the ten races on the program. The most dramatic of the five victories came in the ninth race feature pace.
Race favourite Beach Runner A M and driver Mario Charron had to start from the second tier in post nine, but they were able to find clearance early and started up first-over after the pacesetter, Dragon A Little and driver Guy Corbeil.
But after going to the opening quarter mile in a speedy :26.4, Corbeil was not about to allow Charron to take over the lead with ease and proceeded to keep Beach Runner A M parked out first-over not only past the half mile marker in :55.1, but also around the third turn.
As the field reached the backstretch, Dragon A Little has more than enough and began to fade which allowed Beach Runner A M to gain the lead, but right away he was challenged on the outside by Walks Of Life and driver Stephane Brosseau, who had been following the cover of Dragon A Little in third place.
They pushed Beach Runner A M to the three-quarters in 1:24.3 as Denis St. Pierre was able to catch up to the leaders with Montezuma Bluechip and they ended up going three-wide on the final turn with Who Dey and driver Jocelyn Gendron following their outside flow.
Then it became a two-horse race to the finish with Montezuma Bluechip and St. Pierre barely holding off Who Dey and Gendron to win by a slim nose in 1:55.1. Beach Runner A M held on for third.
It was only the second win in 18 starts this year for Montezuma Bluechip. The lone three-year-old in the field against older horses is a gelded son of If I Can Dream and is trained by Francis Picard and owned by Bayama Farms Inc. He paid $5.50 to win.
Denis St Pierre started off the evening winning the third race with Boogie Panic ($2.90) in 1:57.4; then swept the race card from the seventh to the tenth races with Dont Tell Mom ($7.80) in 1:56.4; D Gs Machbeach ($2.80) in 1:56, Montezuma Bluechip and then capped the evening in the finale with YS Gold Star ($5.50) in 1:56.1.
For the past week at the Hippodrome 3R, Denis St. Pierre now sports eight wins in his 13 drives and his universal driving rating (UDR) or “batting average” at 3R is a very impressive .470.
(Quebec Jockey Club)
To view results for Tuesday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Tuesday Results – Hippodrome 3R.