The 120,000 euros (Aust.$185,000) Group 2 Prix de Bretagne, the first qualifying race for the Grand Prix dÁmerique, the jewel in the crown of the winter meeting at the hallowed Vincennes track in Paris, was conducted last Sunday.
The race for trotters aged between four and 10 years and raced over 2700 metres was contested by horses from Sweden, Italy and France, representing the new generation of European trotting.
The winner Hip Hof Haufor, a son of the 2015 Prix dÁmerique winner Up And Quick, along with the minor placegetters Italiano Vero (by Ready Cash) and Ampia Mede SM (by Ganymede) all earned golden tickets to the $1 million Prix dÁmerique, to be held on January 29, 2023. The winner’s mile rate was 1:56.2.
The other three test races, or ‘B races’ as they are called, are the Prix du Bourbonnais over 2850 metres on December 11, the Prix de Bourgogne (January 1 – 2100 metres) and the Prix de Belgique (January 15 – 2850 metres), all Group 2 events carrying 120,000 euros in prizemoney.
The winners of the Group 1 Criterium Continental for four-year-olds on Christmas Eve and the Group 1 Prix Tenor de Baune for five-year-olds will also gain automatic entry to the Prix d’Amerique.
The prestigious winter meeting began on November 3 and runs until March 5 with the best European horses competing at the ‘temple of trotting’. There are 745 races programmed with 40.3 million euros (Aust. $6.66 million) in prizemoney, an increase of 2.5 million euros (Aust. $3.8 million) from last season.
The average prizemoney per race is 54,824 euros (Aust. $84,000) with 73 per cent for harness and 27 per cent in under saddle races. There are 40 open international races scheduled, and 135 races open for European bred trotters.
A record 16 Group 1 races will be conducted at the Festival with some races replaced and a new race – the 200,000 euros Prix Ready Cash for three-year-olds – to be held on December 11.
The December 18 meeting, dubbed Championship Day, will feature three Group 1 races for mounted horses, the three-year-old Prix de Vincennes, the new Prix Jag de Boullouet for four-year-olds and the Prix Bilibili for five-year-olds. The winners of the latter two events will be guaranteed a start in the Group 1 700,000 euros Prix du Cornulier, the world’s richest under saddle race, to be conducted on January 22.
