from the Quebec Jockey Club

Trois Rivières, PQ — The Rocky Balboa gelding Rocky Boy threw a devastating knockout punch at his opponents in the C$8,000 Preferred Trot at Hippodrome 3R Sunday afternoon (April 30), winning by 6-3/4 lengths in 1:57.

The time would have been a track record in every division at 3R except his older trotting gelding bracket, where Pablo Angus and Michelangelo co-hold the overall track mark at 1:56.

Thephotodesk.ca photo

Rocky Boy was a 1:57 winner in the Preferred Trot.

Speed was the byword from the start as Rocky Boy and driver Marc Belanger raced outside a stubborn Coco Binet before that one finally yielded after a quarter of :27.4. Rocky Boy went on to middle fractions of :56.4 and 1:26.1, at which point the old proverb “If it were a prizefight, they would have stopped it” was even more appropriate than usual.

Last week’s Preferred winner (in 2:02.2) Torches Angel was closer to the Ontario border than to the leader entering the backstretch, but the mare rallied to nose out Ghiradelli Lindy for second behind the powerhouse winner, who is trained by Stephane Beaudoin and co-owned by his trainer and driver.

A race after the fastest trot of the young meet came the fastest pace, as the Shadow Play gelding Glass Shadow went coast-to-coast in 1:55 to give trainer/owner Marc Andre Cormier the first two Preferred paces of the meet, having won last week with Solid Performance.

But this week the spotlight was on Glass Shadow in a 10-horse contest racing for a purse of C$8,400, going fractions of :27.2, :57, and 1:25.4, then holding off the late pocket thrust of Pantheon Seelster by a neck.

The winner was guided by Richard “The Black Cat” Simard, who has indicated he will drive the entire meet at 3R — and why wouldn’t he, racking up a sulky triple on this card to follow his opening day double.

Simard’s opening double and Sunday’s triple ties him at the top of the sulky colony with Stephane Brosseau, who has gone triple-double so far.

The Foreclosure N sophomore gelding Reposession became the first two-time winner at the meet, and extended his current victory skein racing at the central Quebec half-miler to five, when the pacer won the day’s opener in 2:00.4; two races later, the Amigo Hall gelding Jamigo became 2017’s first trotting two-time visitor to the local Victory Lane after completing a 2:03 triumph.

The first two-time 2:00 winner for the season was 2015 2-year-old pacing gelding Quebec champion Mr Mach Jimmy, who followed up his 1:57.4 victory last week with a 1:56.3 triumph here; second was his filly counterpart champion from two years back, Miss Babe Delight.

Finishing Lines: Forty-nine horses went gateward during Saturday’s qualifying session, including three former Quebec-bred series champions: 2014 3-year-old pacing filly champ Chaleurs Fantasy, 2016 older trotting mare winner SOS Revange, and last year’s 3-year-old male trot victor (and track record holder) Holiday Party. Thirty-six of Saturday’s contestants qualified, promising that there should soon be ten races on the Sunday 3R pari-mutuel card.