TROIS RIVIERES, QUEBEC – With the Quebec Plus series for province-bred older horses taking a week off before its final preliminary round next weekend and its $30,000 Championship races on Sunday, July 14, the focus at Hippodrome 3R this weekend will be on a series on Preferred races, the top non-stakes class – which will feature no fewer than nineteen Quebec Plus Series horses looking to maintain or gain sharp racing form.
Two of the winners from Quebec Plus action for trotting mares, Kascara Rosa and Eau Naturelle, will be at opposite ends of the starting gate for Friday's $5000 Preferred feature – Kascara Rose from post one and Eau Naturelle from post six. Also in the field is Lagerfeld, whose 1:58.2 victory here May 26 stands as the co-fastest trot of the year at 3R; he begins from post three. But the early favorite starts just to his inside – Holiday Party, who has a win at the track's top level this year and who was third against males in the Quebec Plus first prelim before making an uncharacteristic break in stride last time.
The ten-race Friday card also features a Preferred event for second-level trotters and a Preferred for pacing mares.
On Sunday the top contest on a nine-race card will be the $6000 Preferred pace, slotted for race four. Five of the six horses in the field have won in 1:56 or faster already this year over the 3R half-miler; the other, Kinnder Jackson, was second to the good veteran McKinney in a Quebec Plus race in the first prelim round, timed in 1:56.
Early favorite in this race is the veteran Saulsbrook Peach, who will begin from post four. The gelding was a 1:55.3 winner when last at the Hippodrome on June 16; last week he was second in a 1:53 mile at Rideau Carleton. Outlaw Turn N Burn, Appleby Hanover, and Surf Report all have won in the local top class this year, and Hooter Shooter brings to this race a three-race winning streak against lesser opposition.
A second-level Preferred handicap for pacers and another second-level Preferred trot have also been carded for Sunday.
First post for Friday evening's action is slated for 7 p.m., while Sunday afternoon's racing has a 1 p.m. scheduled start.
Club Jockey du Quebec