Berube Anticipates Upcoming Season At Hippodrome 3R

The 2024 harness racing season at Hippodrome 3R in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, kicks off this Sunday, May 5, and nobody is more eager than four-time defending driving champion Pascal Berube.

With 81 victories at 3R previous season, Berube led all drivers and finished 24 wins ahead of opponents Stephane Brosseau and Robert Shepherd. Last year, Berube broke all previous records at 3R by winning 102 races, becoming the first driver to do so in a single season.

With 14 victories, Berube is already the second-most successful driver at Rideau Carleton Raceway in 2024. He keeps himself rather busy between the two tracks as a highly sought-after catch-driver.

“Being on the road to a new season is always exciting,” said Berube. “I hope to have a great season once again. I’m not putting pressure on myself because of having already been the leading driver four times. It surprises me when I look back on it and I’m very proud and happy about it.”

“I am currently having a great start to the season at Rideau Carleton,” he noted. “The trainers give me good horses and make the work easier. I like this place too; it’s always nice to drive on a bigger track [five-eighths of a mile]. Trois-Rivieres is a nice half-mile but a five-eighths is fun too.”

The racetrack at 3R has not yet suffered from the winter's effects. Three qualifying sessions have been held at the track, and on Wednesday, the entry box should be crowded with horses prepared for Sunday's opening day of racing.

“For the moment, the track is not yet at its full level,” explained Berube. “But there has been action on it since last November, so I think it is only a matter of a week or so before it will be very beautiful to race over.”

With a comprehensive schedule of racing events and high-stakes races, Hippodrome 3R is set to have its most prosperous season since before the COVID-19 epidemic in 2019.

Major events are scheduled for Sunday, June 2, at 3R. This event, which is sponsored by Standardbred Canada, is a means of determining who will represent Canada in the World Driving Championship in New Zealand the following year. Additionally, on Friday, July 5, 3R will host the National Driving Championship for the first time in the event's 17-year existence.

The return of the $200,000 Prix d'Ete for four-year-old pacers will take place on Sunday, August 18, at 3R. After being held off-track since 2019, the race is back at the track this year and is already supported by a number of elite horses, including Its My Show, Stockade Seelster, Voukefalas, El Rey, Moment Is Here, and Ervin Hanover.

On September 8, the track will host Super Sunday, the richest day of horse racing in all of Quebec, where all eight Quebec Sire Stakes finals for two- and three-year-olds will take place. With purses over $500k, it is the wealthiest racing day in the province. The Quebec series consists of three legs in each level leading up to the finals, and it is played over the summer.

On Sunday, October 6, the $120,000 Brian Paquet Memorial Invitational pacing events for older horses and mares, along with the Lucien Bombardier Pace for two-year-old fillies, will return, capping up the stakes season with a bang.

“The National Driving Championship will be very exciting again,” said Berube, who will compete in the Quebec / Eastern Ontario Regional and be vying for a spot in the 2024 National event again. “I’m still super proud of having finished third in Edmonton [in the 2022 National Driving Championship]. To think I was two places away from representing Canada... I admit that it would be the dream of a lifetime to have the chance to wear the colours of the country.”

“As for the Prix d’Ete, I can’t wait to see it because it’s always impressive to see the horses that we idealise on TV during their three-year-old season and who the following year come here to us in Trois-Rivieres."

On Sunday at 12 noon, harness racing at Hippodrome 3R will begin. On June 7 at 4 p.m., Friday twilight racing gets underway.

“I’m looking forward to Sunday. I wish myself to have fun and once again enjoy the chance to do what I love,” concluded Berube.