TROIS RIVIERES, QUEBEC – James MacDonald, the representative of host country Canada in the 2017 World Driving Championship, added his sixth win of the tournament at Hippodrome 3R in Quebec Wednesday night to widen his lead in the contest, and the trip to the fifth and final venue, Red Shores Charlottetown Driving Park on Prince Edward Island for racing Friday, looks more and more like a triumphant “home stretch” for the 31-year-old, for he is a native of the Island province, and he may be well receiving the driving crown at the place where it all started for him.
Hippodrome 3R is appreciative of having the honor of hosting eleven of the world’s best drivers in their fourth stop on their five-stop West-to-East journey across Canada in the World Driving Championship, which is held every two years in conjunction with the World Trotting Conference; Canada was selected as host in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary of being a home for horse racing.
The standings going into the card:
- James MacDonald Canada 144 points (five wins)
- Mika Forss Finland 130 points (three wins)
- Marcus Miller United States 123.5 points (three wins)
- Shane Graham Australia 97 points (one win)
- Dexter Dunn (defending champion) New Zealand 93 points
- Noel Baldacchino Malta 90 points
- Eirik Hoitomt Norway 89.5 points (one win)
- Bjorn Goop Sweden 86 points (one win)
- Gerhard Mayr Austria 83 points
- Mark Purdon New Zealand 69 points
- Rik Depuydt Belgium 68 points
Here is a description of the four races at the Quebec half-mile oval, all contested at 1 1/16 miles:
RACE ONE ($4000 pace): Dexter Dunn, James MacDonald, and Marcus Miller were all 2-1 in the betting, and those three drivers and their horses – respectively, Imagine Speed, Ninoscredit, and Maracasso –were 1-2-3 at the quarter, though Dunn and Imagine Speed had to pay a 27 price to get to the front. The field stayed in that order until a half-mile remained, when Gerhard Mayr moved Eataam Whosurboy first-over to challenge the leader, and with a strong move with 3/8 remaining Eataam Whosurboy got in gear and started a move that carried him to the lead nearing the far turn.
The key to the race was the horse with the cover behind Eataam Whosurboy – who was nobody, which allowed Miller and Maracasso to get out behind him and then move after the new leader, with MacDonald and Ninoscredit pinned in as the two horses went by. Ninoscredit came on well in the stretch, but Maracasso had the jump on him and sustained to the wire, winning by a length in 2:06.1 over the 1 1/16 miles to give Marcus Miller his fourth win of the tournament.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d get that kind of trip when we left the gate,” Miller noted after the race. “But I was able to get out behind the horse who went to the lead and could keep James (MacDonald) in. I was able to keep going and win, but MacDonald got out and finished second – he’s tough, driving very well now.”
DRIVERS’ ORDER OF FINISH: Miller, MacDonald, Mayr, Dunn, Depuydt, Baldacchino, Goop, Graham, Purdon, Forss, Hoitomt.
LEADER BOARD AFTER FIRST 3R RACE: MacDonald 157, Miller 141.5, Forss 132, Graham and Dunn 101.
RACE TWO ($4600 trot): When you work out a second-over trip from post eleven – the third trailer – on a half-mile track, you know things are going your way – and you are making things go your way.
Native son James MacDonald managed to work out a second-over trip with Federal Strike in this event, following Abundasass and driver Bjorn Goop. Both were out much of the 1 1/16-mile distance, but worked their way to the front spots down the backstretch the final time. It looked for a moment as if MacDonald might not get clearance – that pesky Marcus Miller again – but this time Miller’s horse backed off, and Federal Strike moved out and took it from there, going by Abundasass as the slight favorite and winning by 1 ¼ lengths, with the added-distance time of 2:08.1 declared a 3R track record, since the books and Standardbred Canada had no record of a race over the distance listed.
“I can’t believe I worked out a trip like that,” a disbelieving/euphoric MacDonald said after the contest. “But I know the respect that Bjorn Goop has earned and is given in Sweden and Europe, and when I found a way I could follow him, I figured – I hoped that would be able to carry me up. He did and then my horse got his chance, and we won.” Asked if he felt in a commanding position by now, MacDonald put his game face back on and said, “Still have to grind it out – lots of great drivers out there.”
DRIVERS ORDER OF FINISH: MacDonald, Goop, Forss, Miller, Mayr, Graham, Hoitomt, Dunn, Baldacchino, Purdon, Depuydt.
LEADER BOARD AFTER 3R RACE TWO: MacDonald 175, Miller 149.5, Forss 142, Graham 107, Dunn 105.
RACE THREE ($4200 pace): “The Finnish Lion,” Mika Forss, looked like everything was going his way. His pacer Shanghai B G, the slight 2-1 favorite, got away in the pocket behind a strong pacesetter in Jolt’s Prayer (Dexter Dunn), saw waves of challenger fell back, then looked to move his move on the far turn. “And my horse felt good.”
And then his sulky broke.
“My sulky seat started to break on me, and I had to hold on (to the sulky),” Forss noted after the race. Despite being driven literally one-handed (and perhaps accounting for his bearing out in the stretch), Shanghai B G was able to rally, and he was just up at the – well, finish line for the Finnish Lion, the 1 1/16 miles in 2:06.1.
“That’s never happened to me in all of my career,” the veteran Forss noticed after the race, which provided his fourth victory of the tournament. It also boosted him back into second, a half-point ahead of Marcus Miller, who was on Forss’s back throughout but could do no more than keep his 24-1 shot going for third. MacDonald was in the parked tier and rallied for fifth.
DRIVERS ORDER OF FINISH: Forss, Dunn, Miller, Mayr, MacDonald, Purdon, Hoitomt, Graham, Baldacchino, Goop, Depuydt.
LEADER BOARD AFTER 3R RACE THREE: MacDonald 182, Forss 160, Miller 159.5, Dunn 118 (no wins but five seconds in the tournament), Graham 111.
RACE FOUR ($4400 pace): Nobody wanted to leave anything anywhere but on the track for the last local race, and the field was stacked two- (or more-) deep the entire way. But Noel Baldacchino, from the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta, used the physics to his advantage: he and Tidewater Tomahawk drafted behind the pacesetting Danzig Moon in the pocket, then moved out, was already past the former leader when he made a stretch break, and drew off, winning by 3¼ lengths over the favored Hard Rock, closing well to give defending champ Dexter Dunn his sixth second of a winless tournament, with that MacDonald guy from Canada working his way through with 23-1 shot Winoc Jimmy for third. It was the first win of the tournament for Baldacchino, and oddly Tidewater Tomahawk, who was the program choice, returned $16.30 to win.
DRIVERS ORDER OF FINISH: Baldacchino, Dunn, MacDonald, Depuydt, Hoitomt, Forss, Goop, Purdon, Miller, Graham, Mayr.
AFTER THE FOURTH ROUND OF THE TOURNAMENT:
- James MacDonald Canada 192 points (six wins)
- Mika Forss Finland 166 points (four wins)
- Marcus Miller United States 162.5 points (four wins)
- Dexter Dunn (defending champion) New Zealand 131 points
- Noel Baldacchino Malta 120 points (one win)
- Shane Graham Australia 113 points (one win)
- Bjorn Goop Sweden 111 points (one win)
- Gerhard Mayr Austria 109 points
- Eirik Hoitomt Norway 108 points (one win)
- Rik Depuydt Belgium 85 points
- Mark Purdon New Zealand 83.5 points
FINISHING LINES – Also featured during the card was the draw for Sunday’s $200,000 Prix d’Ete, for the leading four-year-old pacers in North America. The entrants, with their post positions and listed drivers: 1, Sintra (Jody Jamieson); 2, Lyons Snyder (Daniel Dube); 3, Awesomeness (driver TBA); 4, Roll Away Joe (Louis Philippe Roy); 5, Western Fame (Trevor Henry); 6, Stonebridge Beach (Stephane Pouliot); 7, Sports Authority (Pierre Luc Roy); 8, Dr J Hanover (Doug McNair).
Bali went one of the fastest miles in Hippodrome 3R history when he won a $3800 pace in 1:53.1 for Team Auger, sprinting home in 56.1 under the guidance of the track’s leading driver, Stephane Brosseau … In a $4200 trot, the mare Lucky Promesses won her seventh straight start, here in 2:01.2 for breeder/trainer/driver Jerome Lombart.
From the Quebec Jockey Club