Uncontrollable controls 3R feature

TROIS RIVIÉRES QUE – Uncontrollable (Control The Moment) controlled the featured $6500 Preferred harness racing pace at Hippodrome 3R on Sunday afternoon (July 7), as the 15-1 shot overcame a hard journey to stop the timer in 1:54.1 – the fastest mile of the year at the Quebec half-miler.

Red-hot driver Marie-Claude Auger settled him in fourth early as favored Twin B Powerall made the top soon after the start, then yielded to second choice Frozen Hanover before a :28 quarter. Frozen Hanover had Uncontrollable coming to the new leader via the uncovered route to the :57.1 half, and after a protracted battle Uncontrollable went by the pacesetter nearing the 1:25.3 three-quarters.

Uncontrollable was not home free yet, though, as Twin B Powerball found room to come out behind the winner, and he narrowed in through the lane, but driver Marie-Claude Auger got enough out of the horse to keep the favorite at bay by three-quarters of a length.  Louis Philippe Turcotte handles the training for owners Steve Perreault and Johanne Dechamplin.

The stakes season starts at Hippodrome 3R next week with the first round of the Trophée des Éleveurs Series for three-year-olds, to be followed the next week by the initial leg of the Coupe de L’Avenir Series for two-year-olds. Both age brackets will have their Championship races on Sunday, September 8, with $480,000 in purse money on the line – annually one of the most exciting days on the local calendar.

Sunday’s co-feature was the third race, a $5800 purse event for precocious two-year-old pacing fillies looking to prep for their Coupe de L’Avenir action in two weeks time. It went to the distaff Justine Ray (Shadow Play – Woes Jet Filly), who went wire-to-wire from the outside post five in 2:03 for driver Pascal Berube, trainer Yves St Jacques, and owner Michel Letendre.

Justine Ray made the top off the first turn, went to the quarter in :30.2 and then was given a breather by Berube to a half in 1:03. From there there was no catching her, as she got to the three-quarters in 1:34 and then sizzled home in :29 to exact revenge on second-place Myvailiam, who had beaten Justine Ray in a qualifying race.

3R’s leading driver, Berube paraded back four winners on the afternoon; feature winner Marie-Claude Auger had two. David Pilon was the only trainer who harnessed a pair of winners.

3R continues with its Friday at 4 p.m. / Sunday at noon schedule this coming week. As noted above, the three-year-olds will inaugurate the 2024 stakes season locally with first round preliminaries in the Trophée des Éleveurs Series, with trotters of both sexes set for Friday and their pacing counterparts on Sunday. … Voukefalas, who won the Graduate Series Final at The Meadowlands Saturday evening in 1:47.3, along with 2-3 finishers No Control and Act Fast, are eligible to 3R’s signature race, the $200,000 Prix d’Été, to be held Sunday afternoon, August 16.

From Hippodrome 3R