Stage set for H3R Regional Driving Championship

Trois-Rivieres, QC – The first major harness racing event of the 2022 season at the Hippodrome 3R takes place Sunday afternoon (Jun. 26) with the Quebec/Eastern Ontario Regional Driving Championship. Eight top drivers will compete in the first eight races on the H3R card beginning at 12:00 noon.

Featured in the competition will be Marie-Claude Auger, Guy Gagnon, Ryan Guy and Stéphane Pouliot of Rideau Carleton Raceway; Pascal Bérubé, Stéphane Brosseau and Samuel Fillion for H3R; and Nick Boyd for Kawartha Downs.  The presence of a woman driver, Marie-Claude Auger, is a first for the regional championships.

The winner of the competition will compete in the national final, held in Alberta in November, at the Century Mile track in suburban Edmonton. The overall champion will represent Canada in 2023, in Italy.

It took the photo finish camera to decide the winner of the $6,000 Preferred Trot Friday at the Hippodrome 3R. And the winner was Muscles Forever (Muscle Mass) by a long nose.

The 6^th race feature saw race Hall Win and driver Kevin Maguire fly off of the starting gate and take the early lead with race favorite Bonfire Bash (Robert Shepherd) grabbing the pocket seat and stuck on the outside was Muscles Forever and driver Sylvain Fontaine as they passed the opening quarter mile in :29.4.

Fontaine raced Muscles Forever alongside race leader Hall Win past the half mile in 1:00.2. Those two stayed neck and neck down the backstretch, through the three-quarters in 1:30.4 and around the final turn. By then Eau Naturelle (Stephane Brosseau) was second-over and then tipped out three-wide for the charge down the stretch.

Hall Win and Maguire were still in command coming to the wire but Muscles Forever, parked out first-over the entire mile, still had something left at the finish, coming on to win by a long nose in 2:01.4, but not over Hall Win, it was Eau Naturelle and Brosseau flying into the photo finish for second place. Hall Win was a neck back in third.

MUSCLES FOREVER REPLAY

It was the first win in seventeen starts this season for Muscles Forever. The five-year-old gelding by Muscle Mass is trained by Marc Lemay and is owned by his stable from Quebec City. He paid $9.30 to win.

Track Notes: Pascal Berube once again led all drivers with a driving triple. Six of the eight races saw lifetime marks taken. First race post time is 12:00 noon Sunday. For a free race program, click here.

For complete race results, click here.

by Steve Wolf, for the Quebec Jockey Club