Pascal Berube tears it up at Hippodrome 3R

Trois-Rivieres, QC – Harness racing driver Pascal Berube is all but a shoo-in to win this third straight driving title at the Hippodrome 3R and he put on a driving clinic Sunday, winning five of the eleven races on the card.

From Portneuf, Quebec, Berube started off the day winning the first three races on the card with Playa Durharas ($19.20) in the first, Indigo Seelster ($7.20) in the second, then the third race with Café Society ($3.60) and then the fifth race with Yankee Up ($4.20). He also won the 9^th race with Arrhythmogenic ($2.10).

Berube holds an insurmountable lead for this year’s driving title. He ended the card on Sunday with 85 wins, while his closest competitor, Stephane Brosseau, is second with 45 wins.

Berube is enjoying his best season ever as a driver. He has 163 wins already this year and the most earnings ever in a single season with more than $700,000 won by the horses he had driven.

Berube also drives for defending H3R leading trainer Sylvain Tremblay, who had Berube win with two of his horses on Sunday (Café Society) and Yankee Up). That raised his training standings lead to 25 wins, nine more than Francis Richard and Marc-Andrea Simoneau, who are each tied for second place with 16 wins each.

In the 6^th race Preferred-Handicap Pace there was no stopping Histoire Enchantee (Shanghai Phil) and trainer-driver Simon Delisle as they were able to lead from start to finish.

With Twin B Betty (Robert Shepherd) sitting on their back, Histoire Enchantee cut the mile to the quarter in an easy :29.1 and then was challenged on the outside by race favorite Siddhartha (Stephane Brosseasu) and the half was pressed in :58.4.

Siddhartha was stuck on the outside but kept on coming, boxing in Twin B Betty as Histoire Enchantee led the field past the three quarters in 1:27.3.

Around the final turn and starting down the stretch, Histoire Enchantee bore out just enough for Twin B Betty to have room along the pylons, but Histoire Enchantee was too tough, going on to win by one and one-quarter lengths in 1:56.4. Twin B Betty was second with Siddhartha third.

HISTOIRE ENCHANTEE REPLAY

It was the third straight win and sixth win in his last seven starts for Histoire Enchantee. The eight-year-old gelding is co-owned by Aurelle Delisle and Raymond Bouffard and paid $7.40 to win.

Track Notes: H3R will have a special live race card tomorrow (Monday, Oct. 10) as it is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Post time is 1:00 pm. The race card is dedicated to the Quebec Regional Fair Circuit as this is their final race program of the season. As the grand finale, the 8^th race is at a distance of 1.5 miles and it’s the Battle of the Sexes as there are four women and four men drivers in the race. For a free race program, click here.

For complete race results, click here.

by Steve Wolf, for the Quebec Jockey Club