Vincennes - Prix d’Amerique
‘PLUS ça change plus c’est le meme chose.’ The more things change the more they stay the same.
The phrase is well worn but it was apt last Sunday at a deserted Hippodrome de Vincennes outside Paris when last year’s first and second, Face Time Bourbon and Davidson Du Pont repeated the dose in the €1 million ZE Turf Prix d’Amerique.
If anything, Face Time Bourbon was more convincing this time around, in front of a crowd of 550, instead of the usual 40,000.
In a normal year Face Time Bourbon and the pensive-looking Swede Bjorn Goop would have brought the house down. The six-year-old entire moved with 500 metres to go for a second consecutive GPA and a third win for 45-year-old Goop.
As mentioned last week, Sean Kane from The Naul is attached to the Phillipe Brillard yard which produced Gu d’Heripre, who ran third. That was a huge run as it was a big step up for the five-year-old, the equivalent of a novice chaser being placed in a Gold Cup.
“We were delighted,” said Sean. “Frank Nivard (driver) said he gave everything. It is a big ask for a five-year-old. Gu d’Heripre came out of the race fresh. He is entered in a Group 2 race confined to his age group this Sunday (tomorrow).”
Total domination
The story of the Prix d’Amerique was the total domination by Face Time Bourbon. The win also franks his sire Ready Cash’s claims to be the greatest trotting sire in the world. Ready Cash, who has a private fee, has now sired five of the last six Prix d’Amerique winners.
He has one son in Ireland, the 11-year-old Athlete Royale, who had an unremarkable 2020 season at Portmarnock for owner Dominic Callery.
The mare Bahia Quesnot, who races from the less well known yard of driver/trainer Junior Guelpa, attempted to make all in the manner of Sea Cove in 1994 and Varenne’s back-to-back wins in 2001 and 2002. She set a strong pace, but Goop was only biding his time with the winner and moved near the famous intersection to kick clear.
The second favourite Davidson Du Pont, with the biggest name in French trotting Jean-Michel Bazire, gave chase but the quarry was gone for all money. The valiant Bahia Quesnot set such strong fractions that the race record fell. 1.10.8s was the kilometre rate, whereas this column usually talks in miles.
The pari mutuel handle topped €7 million for the first time, which was another record breaker.
False starts
There were three false starts in the race. The French insist on starting their greatest prize with the traditional volte start. The closest Irish parallel is a flag start.
The runners circle slowly while a huge decimal clock counts them down. If any horse triggers an electronic beam before the count of zero a siren goes off, a ‘Faux depart’ is declared. The massive field of 18 go back and start circling again.
The horses usually seem not phased by the atmosphere and the drivers are calm in the sulkies, even in this, Europe’s biggest race.
French pundit Fabien Cailler explained on the BHRC podcast The Sulky Show that there is no such thing as a draw for position. The onus is on each driver to put his horse where they will get off on a good stride.
Irish trainers and drivers find the system strange especially as the autostart is used for plenty of other races. The hosts will hardly worry too much of what the drivers in Dublin think.
On any other Sunday on Sky Sports Racing the Vincennes start would have been viewed as chaotic by the commentators. That title went elsewhere on Sunday and with hindsight, a certain well respected Kildare track might consider using an electronic eye and a siren in future.
Muted celebrations
There were muted post-race celebrations in the winning enclosure. Just as at Epsom and the Curragh last summer, the crowds were terribly missed.
LeTROT and Vincennes usually put on an amazing show, with dancers on stilts, mounted soldiers in formation and cheerleaders. Roll on the end of this pandemic.
The press conference was by Zoom. Goop was asked why was he not more overjoyed? The Swede explained that it was hard to lift himself in the circumstances.
He did confirm that he had phoned his father Olly while the horse was being washed down. Olly was crying, which says a lot given the family have achieved so much in harness racing.
The Irish Field asked Goop if Face Time Bourbon go to race in North America like his stablemate Bold Eagle.
He replied: “I suppose so, Sebastian Guarato (trainer of Bold Eagle and Sunday’s winner) enjoyed the experience so I guess he will.”
Approval
The response was met with approval in American circles on social media on Sunday night.
Maybe it’s a home-town bias but the French media seem to be keener on ‘The King of Vincennes’, Jean-Michel Bazire, and five-time winner Frank Nivard.
In the post race conference Bazire was gracious, despite having finished second again. He concluded: “With 250 metres to go I knew Davidson would not catch the winner. Face Time Bourbon is a legend of a horse.”
Frank Nivard nodded wistfully when asked what the others have to do to beat Facetime Bourbon.
“We cannot,” was how he opened his remarks. Inwardly, Nivard will fancy his chances next year as Gu d’Heripre has plenty of scope to progress with more experience.
The quinté in France is a tote type bet whereby the public have to name the first five home. The quinté pays lottery type dividends. At €2 per ticket and an impossible task, it’s no wonder all the stadia are palaces !
Five so-called experts on The Sulky Show could not crack the puzzle. For the benefit of any readers who have not checked their ticket, Delia Du Pommereux was fourth. Bahia Quesnot, carrying the Carlin ‘score’ eventually held on for fifth.
Several of the larger UK betting chains offered odds on the race. Their fate was sealed early when Face Time Bourbon got away more prominently than when he won in 2020. The winner traded between 4/5 and 10/11 with conventional bookies and was returned at 1.8 on the PMU.
Sky Sports Racing
With several jumps meetings cancelled Sky Sports Racing covered the race in addition to Le Trot Live, which had French commentary. Some trotting followers felt that Sky could do with a harness racing expert to explain proceedings better to the uninitiated.
In the Prix Bold Eagle, immediately after the Prix d’Amerique, Bazire picked up a consolation prize when he took the €100,000 winner’s purse for Irish-American trainer Jerry Riordan.
JMB also picked up a four-day ban for careless driving. The winning horse was Aetos Kronos who was out of form in the run up to the Amerique.
However, Sean Kane told The Irish Field that Riordan thinks of the horse as a PDA contender next year.