Drivers ready for Regional Driving Championship

On Sunday afternoon, June 2, eight harness racing drivers from Quebec and Eastern Ontario will battle it out at the Hippodrome 3R (H3R) in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec to see which two drivers will head to the Canadian Driving Championship, where one driver will emerge as the champion representative to the World Driving Championship in New Zealand.

The competition is run by Standardbred Canada in four regions across the country. The top two drivers in each regional competition get to compete in the finals.

Sunday’s Ontario/Eastern Ontario Regional Driving Championship will feature eight races, 2 through 9, at the Hippodrome 3R in Trois-Rivieres. It was two years ago that Pascal Berube and Samuel Fillion headed to the finals.

Both Berube and Fillion are back again in the competition at H3R, along with Nicholas Boyd, Stephane Brosseau, Guy Gagnon, Jimmy Gagnon, Stephane Poulliot and Robert Shepherd. They are all top drivers in their regions.

Once the morning line was completed, the point system for the competition was calculated based on the morning line (which is just an estimated indicator of betting odds for the racing fans) and came up with the following possible order of finish.

Shepherd — 64
Brosseau — 52
Berube — 51
Boyd — 45
Fillion – 45
Ji Gagnon — 42
G Gagnon — 39
Pouliot – 38

Robert Shepherd is driving two morning line favorites, as is Stephane Brosseau, but since the odds are determined by the betting fans, it could very well change by race time.

For the two top point earners Sunday, they get an invitation to return to H3R on Sunday, July 7, for the Canadian Driving Championship Final where the winner will represent Canada at the World Driving Champion that will be held in New Zealand.

It will be the first time that H3R has played host to the championship final.

Usually, the competition comes down to the very last race and in this case, it’s the 9th race Preferred Handicap Pace. Uncontrollable (post 2) is the 5/2 morning line favorite for driver Jimmy Gagnon. Uncontrollable is on a two-race winning streak. In his last start he scored at H3R in 1:55.4.

Another return winner in the field is Sports Bettor (post 3) with driver Pascal Berube. They are the 3-1 second choice in the race and are coming off a 1:56.2 triumph last week.

Other contenders include Thedoginthefight (Stephane Pouliot) in post 4, Greystone Watchman (Guy Gagnon) in post 5 and YS Sensationalcity (Robert Shepherd) in post 8.
When asked for comments on how they like the horses they selected and who they think are the main competitors, some of the driver said the following:

Stephane Poulliot – “I am feeling confident, and I really like the horses I picked. For me, all of the drivers have a chance to win.”

Pascal Berube – “There is a part of choosing your horses which is interesting but not knowing their starting position when making choices makes things more complicated because if your first choices are not in a good position it makes things even more difficult. In my opinion the big winner of the tournament will be Stephane Brosseau. He has good horses and the good horses he has have a good starting position so I think that will give him better luck.”

Samuel Fillion – “I wasn’t really happy when I saw my first and second picks get the 7 and 8 holes. But they are good racehorses, and we never know what is gonna happen. I think Pascal is probably the major danger. He gets a few good horses with good posts. He also knows those horses really well because he’s been driving at H3R every week.”

Usually, first race post time at H3R is 12:00 noon, but this Sunday at high noon, the fans will first be introduced to the eight drivers in the competition, then the racing will begin.

With the exception of a couple of drivers, all of the 64 horses entered in the competition will have a driver that has not driven the horse before, making the contest even more exciting and harder to handicap.

For more information and a free race program for Sunday’s card, visit here.

by Steve Wolf, for the Quebec Jockey Club