by Quebec Jockey Club

Trois-Rivieres, PQ — Without even a tap of the whip, Future Headlines wrote her own headline at the Hippodrome 3R Sunday afternoon (Sept. 11), scoring an easy triumph in capturing the annual Lucien Bombardier Stake for a purse of C$30,600.

The stakes race is named after Lucien Bombardier, who was a pioneer for harness racing throughout Canada, especially in the province of Quebec. The race is for 2-year-old pacing fillies and has been at the Hippodrome 3R for the past five years. It was inherited when the Hippodrome de Montreal closed for racing. The stake race is co-sponsored by Standardbred Canada and the Hippodrome 3R.

The third race feature started off with D G’s Elsa and driver Jonathan Lachance leaving from post four and trying to gain an early advantage over the 1-9 race favorite, Future Headlines and driver Louis-Philippe Roy by the opening turn. But Roy was not about to let that happen as he urged his filly to the front and led the field to the opening quarter mile in :28.1. With D G’s Elsa right on their back, Future Headlines and Roy led the field to the half mile in :59.1.

Then as Kinnderuntouchable (Justin Filion) tried coming first-over to no-avail in the backstretch, Lachance and D G’s Else pulled from the pocket and came after Future Headlines at the three-quarters in 1:28.4. But it was too little too late as Roy just raised the lines on Future Headlines and the filly scooted away down the stretch, winning by 3-1/4 lengths in 1:58.1. D G’s Elsa was second with Crazy Alice (Rick Zeron) third.

It was the second win in just four lifetime starts for Future Headlines. The daughter of Sportswriter is trained and co-owned by Colin Johnson with Thomas Kyrun, David Heffering and The Beach Stable. She was bred by Tara Hills Stud and paid just $2.10 to win.

Her time of 1:58.1 was just one fifth of a second off the stakes record for the Lucien Bombardier Stake at 3R. That record was set by Mo Molly Blue Chip (Denis St Pierre) of 1:58 in 2014.

TRACK NOTES: Of all the trainers and drivers competing in 10 races at 3R Sunday, only driver Pascal Berube was able to score a driving double, taking both ends of the late daily double.
Live racing resumes at the Hippodrome 3R next Sunday (Sept. 18) first race post time at 1:30 p.m.