Chaleurs Fantasy’s victory on Sunday in the $65,000 Series Quebecoises final for three-year-old pacing fillies at Hippodrome 3R was more rewarding than many realized.
Not only did her owners collect the $32,500 winner’s purse, they got an extra $17,600 breeders’ bonus from the Quebec Jockey Club because the filly was a total Quebec-bred, with both the sire (Omar Khayam) and dam (Shot Of Love) resident in the province.
Trainer Carl Duguay certainly knew about the bonus. His only concern was getting a chance to claim it. Until Saturday afternoon, he wasn’t sure the filly would compete in the race, since she was an also-eligible, needing a scratch to draw in. Delirium’s exit created that opportunity for his filly, who had raced just three days earlier at Rideau Carleton, winning a $4,500 overnight easily in 1:56.4.
“Off that race at Rideau, I expected her to be first or second if she got in. She did the last half in :56.3 and Guy Gagnon didn’t even take the earplugs out,” Duguay said. “The reason we were an also-eligible is that the eliminations were held several weeks earlier. Horses change a lot from week to week. She was a different horse from a month earlier, when she raced on the regional circuit. She didn’t race at two, and she just kept improving. If they raced again on Monday, she’d have beaten them again.”
Stephane Gendron drove Chaleurs Fantasy to victory Sunday, scooting up an inside seam to overtake Thrill Chaser and favourite Champagne Shower for a one-length score in 1:58 at odds of 9-1.
It was the seventh victory in 15 starts this year for the filly, unraced at two. She’s a homebred owned by Duguay’s father Gaston, who races as Elevage Baie des Chaleurs in the Gaspe town of Port-Daniel.
Omar Khayam, a full brother to Mach Three, was their resident stallion, but died earlier this spring at age 21. Another of his offspring contested the Quebecoises finals on Sunday, two-year-old pacing filly First Girl, and she finished second.
(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Paul Delean)