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Vincennes Winter Meeting Review - 20th March 2021.
Over the past four months 'Meeting d'Hiver' (Winter Meeting) has dominated French trotting in what was a unique campaign with all meetings being conducted behind closed doors. Despite this, we witnessed competitive and memorable action across ninety-four meetings comprising of 778 individual races.
Face Time Bourbon and the Grand Prix d'Amérique Triple Crown
The champion, Face Time Bourbon had the perfect start to his Winter Meeting landing the first big event on Thursday 12 November when a class above his rivals to win with no trouble in the G2 driven Prix Marcel Laurent (2100m) for four- and five-year-olds.
The son of Ready Cash would soon make history and become the champion of the meeting with victories on a further four occasions. He gained qualification to the G1 Grand Prix d'Amérique multiple times when successful in the G2 Prix du Bourbonnais (Qualifier two) (2850m) four weeks after his first win of the meeting. The Sébastien Guarato trained superstar gained a third win at the meeting when securing the G2 Prix de Bourgogne (Qualifier five) (2100m) at the start of the year.
Four weeks later, Face Time Bourbon retained his title in the biggest race of the year – the G1 Grand Prix d'Amérique (2700m) with Björn Goop steering to race glory. A fortnight later however, the second leg of the trotting "Triple Crown" produced a shock as Délia du Pommereux cemented her consistent season with a first victory of the meeting in the G1 Grand Prix de France Speed Race (2100m) as she came thundering home to deny the champion in the last twenty metres.
The final leg of the "Triple Crown", The G1 Grand Prix de Paris (4150m) was the marathon on Sunday 28 February racing over two circuits of the Vincennes' outer track negotiating 4150m. Etonnant was the winner of the marathon delivering race success to trainer, Richard Westerink and driver Anthony Barrier for the seven-year-old son of Timoko.
The Road to the Grand Prix d'Amérique
The road to the Grand Prix d'Amérique is always interesting to observe as to which horses achieve automatic qualification in the early months of the meeting and this year was no different.
On Sunday 22 November, Qualifier one (the G2 Prix de Bretagne (2700m)) featured Diable de Vauvert, Feliciano and Bahia Quesnot filling the places with the latter providing a little surprise.
Three weeks later, Qualifier two (the G2 Prix du Bourbonnais (2850m)) saw Face Time Bourbon beat Victor Ferm and Moni Viking which allowed all three to gain qualification.
Sunday 27 December was a big day for the Winter Meeting with two Group one races on the card including the Prix de Vincennes (see review below). The other Group One was Qualifier three (the G1 Criterium Continental (2100m)) for the four-year-old's where Gu d'Héripré took victory to follow up his G2 Prix Octave Douesne (2700m) success. The son of Coktail Jet continued to progress throughout the winter and produced an excellent third in the G1 Grand Prix d'Amérique (2700m) showing potential for the future.
At the same meeting the next Qualifier (four) was run (G2 Prix Tenor de Baune (2700m)) for five-year-olds. Féerie Wood put in her best performance of the meeting and showed herself as one of the best current performers of the age group racing for Alexandre Abrivard and Laurent-Claude Abrivard.
Qualifier five (G2 Prix de Bourgogne (2100m)) was staged on Sunday 3 January where the aforementioned Face Time Bourbon was able to lead home another field including two consistent performers, Vivid Wise As and Délia du Pommereux.
The final qualifier (six), (the G2 Prix de Belgique (2850m)) was two weeks later and a fortnight ahead of the main event. It is hard to achieve the Belgique and Grand Prix d'Amérique double with the time frame of just two weeks between the two feature races, but Davidson du Pont came close for Jean-Michel Bazire after winning this Group Two before finishing runner up in the feature Group One. Further regular names filled placings in the form of Délia du Pommereux and Moni Viking.
'Provinces comes to the City'
Sunday 6 December was an important day, nicknamed the 'Provinces comes to the City' with the G2 Final Grand National du Trot (Prix Maurice de Folleville) (2850m) the feature. Jean-Michel Bazire had further success with a son of Royal Dream, Elie de Beaufour gaining a hat trick.
On the same card, Hatchet Man won the G3 Open des Régions - 3 Ans (2850m) and Ganay de Banville victorious in the G3 Open des Régions - 4 Ans (2850m). Favori de l'Iton was the champion in the G3 Open des Régions - 5 Ans (2850m).
Mounted highlights
Mounted racing also enjoyed a quality Winter Meeting with multiple trial contests leading up to the feature global mounted race – the G1 Grand Prix de Cornulier (2700m).
Saturday 5 December programmed the G2 Prix Joseph Lafosse (2700m) for five-year-olds where Fado du Chêne found success. The son of Singalo followed up a month later to win the G2 Prix du Calvados (2850m). Freeman de Houelle and Daïda de Vandel also gained qualification to the big event that followed a fortnight later.
The G2 Prix Emile Riotteau (2700m) was the final trial contest restricted to the newly changed five-year-olds where Gladys des Plaines gained a fourth triumph at the Vincennes winter meeting of the campaign.
The feature Mounted race was the G1 Grand Prix de Cornulier (2700m) on Sunday 24 January. Bahia Quesnot at the age of ten took victory for driver Matthieu Abrivard and trainer Junior Guelpa.
Flamme du Goutier had a great Winter with four wins and a placing in this contest when second. One of the victories she delivered was in the G1 Prix de l'Ile-de-France (2175m) two weeks later, and had more success seven days after in the G1 Prix des Centaures (2200m).
Three-year-olds
Sunday 20 December featured the three-year-old championship, the G1 driven Critérium des 3 ans (2700m) which went the way of Hanna des Molles who achieved her only win of the campaign despite finishing in the top three in each outing during the Winter meeting.
The G1 Mounted Prix de Vincennes (2700m) was one week later where a son of Un Charme Fou, Helitlopet won for Adrien Lamy and trainer Franck Leblanc. He would then follow up in the G2 Prix Camille de Wazière (2175m) on a snowy Sunday at Paris-Vincennes a month later confirming his promise.
The final key event for the three-year-old division went to In The Money from the Thierry Duvaldestin stable in the G1 Critérium des Jeunes, Prix Comte Pierre de Montesson (2700m) on Sunday 21 February which set a new kilometre rating record in the event with a time of 1'13"4 and gave stallion Cristal Money his for Group One winner.
New Race
An interesting addition was the inaugural G2 Prix Bold Eagle (2100m) and was run after the G1 Grand Prix d'Amerique (2700m) on Sunday 31 January. It replaced the Grade A Prix de Montreal and received a significant upgrade in status. Bold Eagle is one of the greatest trotteur-francais horses ever to race including two Grand Prix d'Amerique titles as well as now being a leading stallion across Europe. Swedish raider, Aetos Kronos, whose sire is Bold Eagle won this Group Two driven event for trainer Jeremiah James Riordan.
