from the Quebec Jockey Club

Trois-Rivieres, PQ — Harness racing driver Mario Charron stole the spotlight at the Hippodrome 3R Sunday (Oct. 15), not only scoring a driving triple over the sloppy track, but his third win came in the featured pace with Atomic Million AM.

Charron started off the day capturing the third race with the long shot Winco Jimmy ($25.10), then the fifth race with Onyx V A ($5.90) and capped the day in the eighth race.

thephotodesk.ca photo

Charron scores his third win of the day in the feature with Atomic Million AM.

The eighth race was the Silver Invitational Pace and starting off from the gate was Mister Big Top (Stephane Gendron), who went right to the front with Beach Runner A M (Pierre Luc Roy) grabbing the pocket-seat to the opening quarter mile in :29.

Already on the move first-over was Atomic Million AM and Charron, just as they did last week, grinding their way to collar Mister Big Top by the half-mile marker in 1:01.3. Atomic Million AM just continued to grind away and cleared to the lead by the three-quarters in 1:32.1 as Mr Mach Jimmy (Stephane Brosseau) who had been second-over, starting to come after the race leader.

Atomic Million AM was just too strong in the stretch, winning by one and one-quarter lengths in 2:02.4. Mr Mach Jimmy was second with the lone mare in the field, Rainbow Palace (Francis Picard) third.

Now two-for-two since coming back to H3R, it was the third win this year for Atomic Million AM. He is bred, owned and trained by Alain Martin of Gatineau and paid $3.80 to win. He also won the Quebec-Bred Series finals at age 2, 3 and 4, one of only two horses every to achieve that feat.

The seventh race top trot was a real slugfest with Echos Funky Claude (Steeve Genois), Dance Hall George (Mario Charron) and R Rkadabra (Pierre Luc Roy) all vying for the early lead.

Parked three-wide, R Rkadabra finally cleared to the lead over Dance Hall George by the opening quarter-mile in :29. Then R Rkadabra and Roy led through the half mile in 1:00.2.

Then by the backstretch, R Rkadabra started to pull away from the field as Lucky Promesses (Jerome Lombart) came first-over and then Artemis Duharas with Raymond Gingras came charging first-over at the three-quarters in 1:32.4 and was able to collar R Rkadabra around the final turn.

Continuing to advance on the race leader, Artemis Duharas and Gingras were able to pull away slowly from R Rkadabra and win by 1-3/4 lengths in 2:05.4. Toga Town (Francis Picard) was third.

It was the third win this year for Artemis Duharas, a 4-year-old mare by Andover Hall, who is trained by Manon Levasseur and owned and bred by Haras De L Estrie of Dunham. She paid $7.30 to win.

Track Notes: The 3-year-old trotter, Bastino, showed his heels to older rivals once again Sunday. It was his fourth straight win at H3R and fifth victory of the year for trainer/co-owner/co-breeder Eric Gnocchini of Saint-Sebastian.

Live racing resumes next Sunday with first race post time at 12:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.quebecjockeyclub.com.