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Leading contenders for Grand National du Trot.
'Provinces come to the City'. This is one way to describe the next feature day of the Vincennes Winter Meeting, Saturday 5 December. The programme is made up of Regional Finals of races for three, four and five year olds with the highlight being the final of the G2 Grand National du Trot (2850m). Qualifying heats have been conducted across fourteen provincial tracks from March through November where points have been accumulated by the participants with the final field assembled based on the best performers throughout the series.
Upon completion of the final qualifying round at Mauquenchy on 18 November the top of the table was held by Et Voila De Muze with 51 points having contested six heats. Whilst failing to win a heat he did fill the placings on four occasions, including last start at Mauquenchy when third (starting favourite) behind Django du Bocage (17 points).
Elie De Beaufour completed the qualifying series with 42 points and may prove to be the horse to beat in the final. Trained by Jean-Michel Bazire (with a current strike rate in the range of 18-22% starters to winners), the horse has won nineteen of twenty-five starts, including the past two with one at Angers in a heat of this series. Another Bazire trained horse is Crusoe d'Anama winner of the heat at Nantes in early November.
Diable De Vauvert may have only contested two qualifying races of the series but won at Maure-de-Bretagne in June followed by a second in September at Châtelaillon-La Rochelle. He has since won the next three outings including the G2 Grand Prix de Bretagne (2700m) at Vincennes last Sunday (22 November).
Safely qualified for the G1 Grand Prix d'Amerique at the end of January, this well-placed horse throughout his career is now showing true ability to be one of the best currently racing. Following the win last weekend, he is proven in top level company and must be a good chance of winning the final.
Drole De Jet is a proven Group performer who won a Group One earlier in his career in Sweden. The next of the qualifiers are Fashion Queen and Fairplay d'Urzy.
Whilst only the third weekend of the Winter Meeting, this meeting every year is one of the highlights of the Festival.
