THE great and the good of European trotting were at Vincennes outside Paris at the weekend for the €900,000 Prix d’Amérique and the fantastic festival around the feature race.
The 40,000 strong crowd went home satisfied as the current top man in France, Jean Michel Bazire trained and drove the favourite Belina Josselyn (€3.50 on the PMU) to take Europe’s most coveted trophy.
Bazire took all the headlines. Not only was his great-gaited mare the glamour horse in the race, but he also managed to train the second and fourth. Only last year’s winner, the popular Readly Express (Bjorn Goop driving for Finnish-born Timo Nurmo), spoiled a procession.
At the moment, 47-year-old Bazire is at the peak of his powers. Throughout the winter season at France’s main track, his horses have been in fantastic form.
He has won the Sulky d’or (Golden Sulky) for the country’s leading driver 20 times! Belina Josselyn’s win was the trainer fourth Prix d’Amérique as a driver.
The programme notes aptly described Belina Jossleyn as a ‘ballerina’. With her long, reaching stride and chesnut coat she is a striking sight.
Jean Michel Bazire was content to sit mid division for most of the race. Another of his runners, the six-year-old Davidson Du Pont (Franck Ouvrie), made most of the running. Belina Josselyn scotched all those myths about chesnut mares with a gutsy late rally to get up by a snug half-length.
“I always thought I was going to win,” Bazire told the press afterwards. “Belina settled well for me and sprinted when I needed her.”
Looking Superb was a 60/1 upset in second place for catch driver Alexandre Abrivard.
Bold Eagle who won this in 2016 and 2017 was slightly disappointing in sixth.
Regular driver Frank Nivard said that the yellow vests on the track upset the horse and that the combination did not get a good start.
RESULT
2019 GRAND PRIX D’AMERIQUE €900,000
1. Belina Josselyn 8yo m (dr. JM Bazire tr. JM Bazire) €405,000
2. Looking Superb NOR) 6yo h (dr. A Abrivard tr JM Bazire) €225,000
3. Readly Express (SWE) 7yo h (dr. B Goop tr T Nurmos) €126,000
4. Davidson Du Pont 6yo h (dr F Ouvrie tr JM Bazire) €72,000
PMU: 3.40 1.70 6.70 1.80 Kilometre Rate: 1.11.7