The curtain closes on the 2018 harness racing season at Hippodrome 3R (3R) on Sunday with the second 'whipless' racing card, the return of Canada’s leading money winning and dash leader, Louis-Philippe Roy, plus the leading driver and trainer awards.
The last two days of the 3R race meet is featuring “whipless” racing. The drivers are not carrying whips as the Quebec Jockey Club that runs 3R is conducting the experiment as they seek stricter whipping rules for 2019.
Quebec native Louis-Philippe Roy (LPR) returns for closing day and is listed to drive in nine of the ten races on program. He wants to be involved in the “whipless” racing and is a major advocate of changes in harness racing to attract new people in becoming race fans and owners.
Driver Stephane Brosseau has been the leading driver at 3R since opening day back in April. Going into Sunday’s closing day card, he leads Pascal Berube 49 to 45.
Berube, who has been red hot as of late, has a tall order in trying to catch Brosseau. Berube has nine drives Sunday, while Brosseau has just six drives.
The training title is all wrapped up as Francis Richard will win his second title at 3R. He currently has 25 wins from his stable, while his nearest rival, Maxime Velaye has 17 wins.
The closing day program has two co-feature events with a Preferred Pace and Trot.
The pacers hit the track first in race seven. Rainbow Palace, the lone mare in the field, goes for her second straight win against the boys from post six with driver Francis Picard listed. Rainbow Palace faces rivals Windsun Cheyenne (post five) and Hooter Shooter (post three).
The eighth race Preferred Trot is a wide-open affair with a full field of nine starters.
The lone return winner in the field is SG Goliath King (post four) for driver Stephane Gendron. That duo moves up in class and faces Holiday Party (post seven), Jamigo (post eight) and Eau Naturelle (post five).
Post time Sunday is 12:50 pm. For a free race program, visit quebecjockeyclub.com. To view entries, click the following link: Sunday Entries - Hippodrome 3R
(with files from the Quebec Jockey Club)