For real this time: three-time O’Brien award winning driver Louis-Philippe Roy is returning to compete at Hippodrome 3R Sunday (August 8) for the second round of the Future Stars Series.
The former leading driver at 3R, Roy will be competing in the first nine of the 10 races on the Sunday program, and there is a special reason the top reinsman is back at his home track.
LPR has two of his own horses competing in the Future Stars Series for two-year-old pacing colts and fillies.
The series features three rounds of preliminary competition with the top eight-point earners in the series returning on Sunday, September 12 for their respective $55,000 series finals.
LPR bred both Aladdin Du Lac (Race 4) and Jafar Du Lac (Race 5) and co-owns the colts with his older brother, Pierre Luc Roy.
When the first round of the series was held two weeks ago, LPR was scheduled to drive but could not make it from his home base of Toronto to Quebec due to severe storms.
“No worries like last time,” LPR said. “I will be there this Sunday.”
The fourth race is the first division of the series for the colts. The morning line favourite at 5/2 is returning series winner, Arrow Magic.
The son of Big Jim starts from post four for driver Stephane Brosseau and in his last start was parked first-over the entire mile and still was able to pull away from the field to win in a romp by five lengths in 2:00.3. That was the first career win for Arrow Magic.
The field also includes returning winner Persistant Boy (Post 1), Ritchie Alpha (Post 6) and LPR’s Aladdin Du Lac (Post 5).
The second series division for the colts is race five and features newcomer Kaporal (Post 3) for driver Stephane Gendron.
Trained by four-time HR training champion Francis Richard, Kaporal is winless in two starts but has shown amazing speed on a half-mile track, finishing second in his last start at Grand River Raceway, timed in 1:56.3.
Other contenders in the field include HP Momentum (Post 6) for driver Jocelyn Gendron, also a newcomer from Woodbine Mohawk Park, local favourite Titanium Alpha (Post 4) and LPR’s Jafar Du Lac, who starts from post one.
The pacing fillies battle in their division of the Future Stars Series in the seventh race and it is a wide-open affair featuring recent winners Godiva Me Amour (Post 7) and Shes Rockandfame (Post 3), Amaya (Post 2) and Sunjet May (Post 4).
As for LPR, even if his own horses do not fare well in the series, he is listed to drive race favourites Independence Time (Race 6), Precieuse CC (Race 8) and Mickeymaksomespeed (Race 9).
Post time Sunday is at 12:10 p.m.
After Sunday’s live race card, Hippodrome 3R will take a one week break as the Grand Prix Trois-Rivieres auto race is in town next week. Live harness racing will then resume on Friday, August 20 with the final preliminary round of the Breeders Trophy Series for three-year-old trotters.
For a free race program, visit hippodrome3r.ca. To view Sunday's entries, click the following link: Sunday Entries - Hippodrome 3R.
(QJC)