Prix d’Amerique, Vincennes, Paris

THE early odds compilers got it right, as Idao de Tillard became the 18th horse to win back-to-back Prix d’Ameriques.

Idao de Tillard had been favourite with the betting companies who priced the 2025 Prix d’Amerique for the month preceding the big race, but on the day, there were flip-flopping favourites as the money came for Go On Boy, fourth in 2024.

The winner was returned at 3.3 on the PMU or 9/4 in the old money. Go On Boy started marginally shorter.

The winning seven-year-old is trained by the Duvaldestin family, who have now won the Amerique four times. However, they are refreshingly enthusiastic in their celebrations, they cheer and smile like it was their first-ever classic win.

Officially, Thierry Duvaldestin, the father is the trainer and his son Clément (27) is the driver. Clément also drove the horse to win in 2024. Idao de Tillard came down the middle of the Vincennes straight. The track feels like a motorway to the Irish visitors accustomed to our tight tracks.

Clément kicked the air with both feet, as did Jean Michele Bazire on previous occasions. The wild celebration came in for criticism in some quarters, but who can blame a young man on winning €600,000 first prize in a prestigious race?

The trainer seems to have jettisoned the overcheck from Idao de Tlllard in his later career. The seven-year-old has a good economical stride, he does not waste time in the air.

Chaotic scenes

In the chaotic scenes immediately after the race ended, the Bliard family could be heard clapping the runner-up Just Love You. Both the six-year-old mare and driver Alexandre Abrivard were involved in the same horsebox accident last year. The French press latched onto this story and there is no doubt this was some comeback by the runner-up.

“This was the greatest second place I have ever driven,” said Alexandre, who has steered 2,300 winners. The family looked overjoyed.

In the post-race press conference, M. Jean-Pierre Barjon, the president of SETF (Le TROT in effect), announced that there were 36,000 supporters at the meeting. The PMU handle was €27.8 million worldwide on the meeting. “When the product is there, the public will be there.”

“I got a great trip,” said Clément Duvaldestin, “my two main rivals were behind me and it was a tough finish.”

His father Thierry said: “I always thought Idao would be okay unshod all round.” The race was the horse’s first “déferré des quatre pieds” and this was seen as a brave gamble at this level. *

The favourite Go On Boy was not disgraced in third with Romain Derieux. He gets going very late in his races and might be better suited by the extra 1.4 kilometres of next month’s Prix de Paris at the same venue.

Derieux said: “Clément blocked my way through, but there’s no doubt the best horse won.”

Generous

The Swede Bjorn Goop, who was so generous with his time in The Irish Field last week, did not get his just reward. San Moteur caused a false start by galloping and did the same trick at the second attempt, earning instant disqualification.

Horses are a great leveller. The journey across Paris to Grosbois will have seemed longer to the Goop connections as they asked: “What made him gallop?” just like puzzled horsemen all over the world. Bjorn told the media that the horse simply got fired up and was pretty much uncontrollable.

* ‘shod or unshod’ – the slightly cushioned surface of the best trotting tracks allows trainers the choice of racing with four shoes, or two shoes (front or back). The tactic was introduced by certain Swedish trainers and has been so successful that over 85% of the runners across the 10-race card had their shoes pulled off just before their race.

The experts believe horses trot more freely and the advantage is at least half a second per mile or three valuable lengths! The rules state that shoeing arrangements must be declared and are annotated on the racecard. Some horses do not act without shoes, but these are rare.

One fantastic Vincennes opening show

AS usual, Le TROT did themselves proud with the scale of the opening show. Rappers and dance troupes appealed to the younger people in the audience. MC Laurent Brunetau whipped up the crowd. The band of the Republican Guard and some sombre-suited officials from Le TROT gave the event some gravitas.

In previous years, the trophy has been delivered by a helicopter. On Sunday, Teddy Riner, a Goliath of a man and four-time Olympic gold medallist for judo, was guest of honour and the public seemed to adore him. I must confess that my pub-quiz sporting knowledge does not extend to Olympic judo and I had to ask “who is he?”

Teddy Riner delivered the trophy in a chauffeur driven gull-winged Tesla. No sooner had Teddy done his star turn than a further convoy of 18 Teslas came rolling slowly up the track and the big race drivers got out one at a time, each one saluting the crowd or blowing air kisses to the grandstand.

The race had no official sponsor’s name in its title banner (it is funded by the PMU). Presumably, Tesla paid handsomely for this product placement.

The Prix d’Amerique might be in honour of America, but it’s a uniquely French occasion.

Mooreside connection to monté star

GER and Sean Kane of Mooreside Stud, The Naul were in Paris at the weekend and had good reason to be proud.

Heden Cruz, an eight-year-old gelding by Apprenti Sourcier, won the Prix Tidalium Pelo, a monté (ridden) event of €60,000 under a confident ride by Miss Tamara Mathias-Maisonette. The French have kept saddle racing alive, as they believe it helps keep strength in their breed.

Apprenti Sourcier was originally leased by the IHRA to serve this country’s growing broodmare band. When his yearlings started to show promise, Ger bought the horse outright.

All of the three-year-old trotters, which raced in Ireland last year, were by the stallion who won €286,000 as a racehorse and clocked a 1.11km rate (1.53.6 for the mile).

All the races on the undercard were of a high standard, as befits a meeting televised in 30 countries. Even though Heden Cruz was conceived before the horse moved to Ireland, for this country to have a connection to a winner on Prix d’Amerique day is progress.

Apprenti Sourcier is still only 15. He is a chesnut, as is Heden Cruz and also Jeremiah O’Mahony’s Lieutenant Dan, the stand-out three-year-old in Ireland in 2024.

“We’d been following Heden Cruz’s career on Le TROT live podcasts,” Ger told The Irish Field. “He had won 11 races and over €200,000 going into the race, It was some buzz to be present at the track.

“I got down to the stables to meet the connections. The owner was not present, but the breeder was. They seemed genuinely interested in the Irish industry and had heard of Harry Knows.

“He’s a strong tank of a horse and went off at 1/2, so somebody fancied him. The owners’ representative says he’s equally useful in a sulky, so that’s something to look out for.”

Fellow Dubliners Fergie Gosson and Darren ‘Chicken‘ Keegan never miss a trick and they were teasing Ger that the service fee should go up.

The times they are a changin’

SINCE the Stone Age men first used horses to drag home their dead hunting quarry, there have been very few changes in the style of riding or driving. It is well-documented that, on the flat, the American Tod Sloan introduced the forward crouch on horseback in the 1800s. A hundred years later, the Belgian jockey Phillipe Masschaele pioneered the style of leaning forwards for trotting jockeys in saddle races.

Now the leading sulky (attelé) drivers in France, who previously sat more upright than their US counterparts, seem to be ‘getting their lean on’ as they say in America.

The reason is that several leading sulky manufacturers have developed a carbon fibre sulky to comply with the strict French rules about sulky design. The new ‘US-style sulkies’ are thought to run better if the driver leans back, which can slightly ‘lift’ the horse.

To explain the physics, think how if a child leans back on a see-saw this lifts the person on the other side of the pivot...