With spectators finally allowed without Covid restrictions, opening day of the Hippodrome 3R 40-day race meet on Sunday (May 1) featured a strong crowd of race fans enjoying the live harness racing and sunny skies.
She is the not the fastest two-year-old trotting filly currently in harness racing, but Stella Alpha stays on gait and improves in speed with every start as she posted her third straight win Friday with an easy score in the opening round of the Future Stars Series at the Hippodrome 3R.
Lune Duharas and driver Denis Gueriel were first on the lead but that was short-lived as Pascal Berube had Stella Alpha on the move and the daughter of Royalty For Life took command by the opening quarter mile in :30.4.
She then held the field at bay for Berube, going to the half mile in 1:03.1 and the three-quarters in 1:34.4 before breezing home an easy winner by one and one-half lengths in 2:05. Lune Duharas was second with LA Surprenante (Simon Delisle) third.
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When the Quebec Jockey Club added a special Friday race card in addition to its Sunday card of harness racing at Hippodrome 3R, there was little trouble filling both race programs.
In fact, there are a total of 19 races over the two days and all but one race has full fields of eight starters and the one race that did not fill all the way has seven starters.
“We are really pleased with the results from this quick double draw on Wednesday,” said Murielle Thomassin, Director of Racing at the Hippodrome 3R. “We only announced late Tuesday that we were adding the Friday card and then on Wednesday morning we had more than enough horses in the entry box.”