Sunjet Ray looking for big score in Bombardier Pace

Sunjet Ray may or may not end up being the race favorite in Sunday’s $28,000 Lucien Bombardier Pace for two-year-old harness racing fillies at the Hippodrome 3R. Either way she cannot read the tote board but that has not stopped her from having an excellent first season at the races.

The daughter of Sunshine Beach goes from post two in the fourth race feature Sunday at H3R and will be driven by Stephen Gendron, who has driven the filly once, four starts back, to a game second place finish. She is trained and co-owned by four-time leading trainer at H3R, Francis Richard with Dr John Bradbury.

“We bought this filly privately,” explained Richard. “My friend John Bradbury called me up one day and said she was for sale, so we worked out a deal.”

And what a deal that has turned out to be. Sunjet Ray has but five starts this year, but three of them wins with one second and one third place finish.

Her most important victory came two starts back when she was able to lead from start to finish in capturing the $50,000 Future Stars Series championship final at H3R in a lifetime best 2:00.2 clocking. She now sports $36,457 in earnings, making her the class of the field.

When did Richard’s know the filly would become very good during its early training?

“I would say early in the spring,” Richard explained. “We could see she had something special in her, unfortunately I think with the Grassroots semi-finals the same weekend of the Bombardier Pace didn’t help draw many for this race. It should still be a good race anyway.”

Louis-Philippe Roy had been her regular driver as of late, but could not make it back to H3R for this race.

“LPR has been very busy the last couple weeks with driving, sales and stuff,” Richard said. “So, he could not make it to drive her again, but Stephane Gendron knows her well. He went with her this summer and will be fine on Sunday.”

What was it like for Richard’s to win the rich final with Sunjet Ray?

“It felt so great to win that final,” Richard said. “I own her with some great friends of mine and for most of them it was their first time winning a major Quebec-bred stake. Seeing them hoisting the big trophy in the winner’s circle and all their excitement made me so happy. That’s why we have horses, for moments like that.”

In her last start, Sunjet Ray put in a game performance at Mohawk Park in Ontario, finishing third in a division of the Ontario Sire Stakes Grassroots, timed in 1:54.2.

Her main rival in the race is the race favorite Shezis A Beauty from post five. The invader from Ontario scored a lifetime best 1:56 clocking two starts back in winning a division of the Prospect Series at Grand River Raceway.

The daughter of Sportswriter has two wins, both on the front end. Trained by Gerard Demers, Samuel Fillion will drive Shezis A Beauty for the first time.

Two other fillies that will be competitive in the field are HP Mary Sunshine (Sunshine Beach) and D Gs Shallow (Shadow Play) who have just achieved their best times, miles around 2.00 – 2.01. Obviously, in order to be able to aspire to great honors, they will have to do better on Sunday. And it’s possible with two sulky masters, Pascal Bérubé (HP Mary Sunshine) and Jonathan Lachance (D Gs Shadow) in the sulky.

One of the “pioneers” of horse racing in Canada, but especially Quebec, Lucien Bombardier devoted his entire life to the industry. Born and raised near Bedford, Bombardier retired in 1992 after 16 years on the board of directors of the Canadian Standardbred Horse Society.

For more information and a free race program for Sunday, click here.

By Steve Wolf, for the Quebec Jockey Club