$500,000 in purses for Super Sunday in Quebec

On Sunday, Sept. 10, the Quebec Jockey Club will be hosting the richest day of racing in all of Quebec with more than $500,000 in purses for Super Sunday at the Hippodrome 3R.

Featured will be the finals of the Quebec Championships for two and three-year-old trotters and pacers. There are eight finals, four $65,000 finals for the three-year-olds and four $55,000 finals for the two-year-olds, plus three $10,000 Invitational races.

The 12-race program gets underway at 12:00 noon Sunday. And the busiest people on the day will be the drivers, trainers and caretakers of all the horses competing Sunday afternoon.

Amongst the drivers with the most mounts goes to three-time O’Brien award winning driver, Louis-Philippe Roy, who have 11 drives in the 12 races. Then it is the reigning four-time H3R leading reinsman, Pascal Berube with 10 drives.

Last year LPR stole the show on Super Sunday with five winners, four in the finals but this year he is not listed on any race favorites, but will be driving three of his own homebred foals in the finals.

Trois-Rivieres native Daniel Dube has returned home for Super Sunday and has six drives on the program. Then there is Stephane Brosseau and Robert Shepherd each with nine drives, Guy Gagnon with eight drives, Jocelyn Gendron and Marie-Claude Auger each with seven drives. This group will have a very busy day.

On the training side the leader is David Pilon, who will send out seven horses from his stable, three of whom are all in the 11^th race final for three-year-old pacers. Then with six starters each are Sylvain Tremblay and Isabelle Darveau followed by Maxime Velaye (5), Jack Reid (4), Daniel Martin (4) and Guy Gagnon (4).

Horses to watch include Kenogami Queen (post 3, race 4) in the $55,000 final for two-year-old trotting fillies. She has a chance to sweep the entire series as she enters the final on a three-race winning streak for driver Stephane Brosseau and trainer-owner-breeder Jack Reid.

Another filly, this one age 3 and a pacer, Ladycorona (post 5, race 5) also could sweep her series with a victory Sunday for driver Pascal Berube and trainer Yves Tessier. She saw her five-race winning streak come to an end just last week in a tight finish.

Wild Dream Men (post 4, race 6) was undefeated in his first three starts for driver-trainer Guy Gagnon, but in the third preliminary round for two-year-old trotting colts and geldings, he suffered his first defeat by only a head.

The track will begin the day with special festivities at 11:30 am the presentation of dignitaries for the big day including honorary speaker René Villemure, Member of Parliament for Trois-Rivières, musicians, decorations, presentation blankets for the horses and lots of trophies for the winners. There is also a fancy hat competition and a live concert after the races.

For more information and a free race program, visit here.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Steve Wolf, for the Quebec Jockey Club