Big weekend of racing at Hippodrome 3R

Harness racing fans in Quebec and throughout the racing world can enjoy a big weekend of racing action at the Hippodrome 3R in Trois-Rivieres headlined by the finals of the Quebec-Bred Series for older trotters and pacers.

Live racing starts Friday (4:00 pm) with a nine-race program.

The action gets underway right in the first race feature pace where H3R’s leading trainers this season, Marc-Andre Simoneau with 10 wins and Louis-Philippe Turcotte, who is tied for second place with Maxime Velaye, each with 8 wins, will battle each other. Velaye has no horses entered on Friday.

Simoneau has Goldinthebadlands (Badlands Hanover) starting from post 5 at 4-1 and comes into the race off an impressive first-over mile and finishing third. Stephane Brosseau will drive.

Turcotte has entered Super FM (Betterthancheddar) who starts from post seven and he is the lone return winner in the field. Last week he too was parked out first-over and still was able to win in 1:57.1. He will have Pascal Berube in the sulky.

There is now a three-way battle in the driver standings with Pascal Berube (21 wins) just one ahead of Stephane Brosseau (20) with Jocelyn Gendron in the hunt with 17 wins.

Come Sunday (12:00 noon) afternoon at H3R, there will be three $30,000 finals of the Quebec-Bred Series for four-year-old and older trotters and pacers.

The trotters (horses and mares) are in race 4 $30,000 Final where Frido PV (Muscle Mass) is the 5/2 morning line favorite with driver Jonathan Lachance in the sulky. Last week in the series he made an uncharacteristic break at the start of the race and finished last. Prior to that he was on a three-race win streak.

Taking on the favorite will be the tough entry from trainer Maxime Velaye of Ciel Bleu (Stephane Brosseau) and Capteur De Reve (Guy Gagnon). Capteur De Reve is going for an unprecedented fifth Championship Title.

The $30,000 Final for the pacing mares is the 8^th race where Kiss Me Bad (Steven Gagnon) is the slight favorite after being parked out last week and finished second by three-quarters of a length.

Last week’s return winner, Celia Bayama (Stephane Brosseau) drew post one after wiring the field in 1:56.2.

The last $30,000 final for the pacing horses is the 10^th race and the favorite is The Light Speed (post 6), who is on a two-race winning streak and has won six of his last eight starts. He is trained and driven by Guy Gagnon.

His rival, Aladdin (post 5) looks to rebound for driver Stephane Brosseau after finishing fourth last week in the final preliminary round of the series.

For free race programs, visit here.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Steve Wolf, for the Quebec Jockey Club