Driving triples for Picard & Berube at Hippodrome 3R

TROIS RIVIÈRES, QUÉ – Harness racing drivers Francis Picard and Pascal Berube each had driving triples on the Sunday afternoon card at Hippodrome Trois Rivières, and they accounted for the three features between them, with Picard taking two and Berube, the track’s leading driver, winning the other.

Spectrum Seelster (Mach Three) and Picard had no thought but to be fronting the $6,000 Preferred 2-3 handicap pace, and the horse went quick fractions of :27.3, :56.4, and 1:25.4, but really was not under great pressure. Coming through the stretch Spectrum Seelster widened his margin as traffic woes hindered many foes, with Siddhartha second but still 5½ lengths behind Spectrum Seelster at the end of a 1:55.1 mile. Trainer Charles Gaudreault co-owns the winner of $135,069 with Daniel and Maxim Gaudreault.

SPECTRUM SEELSTER REPLAY

Bonfire Bash (Angus Hall) drew the rail in the $6000 Preferred 2-3 handicap trot, and Picard took advantage by rushing the gelding away at the start. The pair got a literal and figurative break when early challenger Titans Dream went offstride at the eighth pole, and Bonfire Bash was able to set fractions of :28.4, :59.1, and 1:29.2 before taking a new mark of 2:00.4. Favored P C Heisenberg took the early pocket, sat there, then saw his stretch charge come up 1½ lengths short against the Serge Houde trainee, owned by Gestion Michel Carrier Inc.

BONFIRE BASH REPLAY

The Yankee Cam mare Sophies Cam was shuffled back on her start on Friday, but in Sunday’s $5,500 Preferred 3 pace for distaffs Berube took the variables out of play by sending her to the front. Sophies Cam got to the quarter in :28.3, then got soft middle fractions of :59.3 and 1:29.1 before sprinting home in :28.2 to leave the competition behind at the end of a 1:57.3 mile.

Trainer Carl Duguay won with the mare, the betting favorite, in only her second start in his stable, boosting her lifetime earnings to $117,570 for owner Yvanhoe Landry.

SOPHIES CAM REPLAY

Hippodrome 3R is currently racing on Fridays at 4 p.m. and Sundays at noon. The rich Quebec-bred series for two- and three-year-olds begin on Friday, July 15.

For complete race results, click here.

by Jerry Connors, for the Quebec Jockey Club