Badlands Bay kicked off the Hippodrome 3R harness racing program on Friday, Sept. 8 with a bang as the 19-1 longshot was able to upset the field in the very first race pace.
Driven superbly by Maxime Dinelle, Badlands Bay got away in fourth place at the start of the race as favourite Twizzler GT (Pascal Berube) shot to the early lead from post three and opened up by five lengths by the opening quarter-mile in :27.1.
Velocity Impetuous (Marie-Claude Auger) was stuck first-over from the start and went after Twizzler GT, making it upto second on the outside at the half-mile in :58.2.
On the backstretch, Dinelle moved Badlands Bay second-over, following Velocity Impetuous, who had not yet given up despite being parked out the entire way. They passed the three-quarters in 1:28.4.
As the field came off the final turn, they had fanned out four-wide and it was Badlands Bay who was the strongest of all, coming on to win by 1-3/4 lengths in 2:00.4 over late-closer GA Speed Matrix (Alain Carrier) in second and Peppa Pam (David Pilon) in third.
Trained and owned by Germain Chabot of Saint-Nazaire-D’Acton, Que., the three-year-old Badlands Hanover gelding earned his second win in 11 starts during his debut season. He paid $40.80 for the upset win.
Live racing resumes at 3R on Sunday, Sept. 10, which is Super Sunday at the track with all eight Quebec championships taking place for two and three-year-old trotters and pacers. A 12-race card will start at noon with more than $500,000 in purses. Super Sunday has drawn back to 3R two top drivers in Louis-Philippe Roy and Daniel Dube. There will also be three $10,000 Invitational events. For a free race program, visit hippodrome3R.ca.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Hippodrome 3R.
(With files from Quebec Jockey Club)