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News In Brief of French Racing.
It is one-month until the commencement of the Winter Meeting at Vincennes. The first of the feature races to be run will be the G2 Grand Prix de Bretagne (2700m). This event will kick off the festival which is held for three months until the end of February with Group One races for all ages and disciplines will be presented throughout.
At Vincennes last Friday (16 October), the Union of European Trotting (UET) feature meeting of the season was conducted. The UET is the collective body of European Trotting countries. There are more than twenty member countries of this organisation that promotes trotting in Europe and tackles issues such as uniform rules, drug policies and racing across all member states.
Three Group One races were conducted, all run over the 2100m autostart. Each event was age restricted to three, four and five-year-olds. The Grand Prix de l'UET for four-year-olds is recognised as the European contest to uncover the next Champion. Recent winners include Bold Eagle (2015), Readly Express (2016) and Face Time Bourbon (2019). The history book confirms winners of this race progress to win feature Group One races including the biggest of them all – the Grand Prix d'Amerique (six horses).
Many horses travelled from across Europe to contest the Group One races at Vincennes, and this provided the opportunity to identify some of the horses that may be worth following during the coming months.
In a dramatic finish to the Grand Prix de l'UET, Swedish contender Power won by a nose from French horse Green Grass.
Power's Trainer/driver, Robert Bergh, was delighted after his narrow victory and provided an insight to his immediate plans:
'I am happy he could eventually show his real level…it is always special to win a great race here in Vincennes. Power will come back this winter, for sure for the Criterium Continental (27 December).' The winner of this race receives an automatic entry to the G1 Grand Prix d'Amerique, something that enabled Face Time Bourbon to complete the double.
Runner-up Green Grass's owner Sébastien Dewulf provided an interesting perspective about the filly: 'We were racing for fourth place. I cannot believe we were a close second. She was the only filly in the race but when she has her shoes off, she is not the same. Last time, she had heavy shoes on. It changed everything. There is just a nose on the photo, but we know, with a longer trip, she would come home very strongly…'
Driver of fourth home (and beaten less than one length) Aetos Kronos, Orjan Kihlstrom, indicated he would be participating at the winter meeting, however, for the favourite in the race Ecurie D, it is unlikely he will be returning for the winter as driver Bjorn Goop stated after the race 'his season is over'.
In the three-year-old division, local French horse Helgafell notched up his second Group One having scored at his previous start in Prix Albert Viel (2200m) in June. The aim is to commence stallion duties next season. This will not prevent him from continuing his racing career and the Criterium des 3 ans in December will be his immediate target with two Group Two contests as trial events.
Runner up Custom Cheval will return to Sweden for the Breeders Crown.
The winner of the five-year-old was Feerie Wood. Now reaching maturity she is the horse to watch as the one who might continue to progress and become an elite performer. Trainer Laurent Abrivard explained the patience connections have shown with her: 'With her size we had to be careful with her. She is very tall and athletic. We had to take our time to let her have more muscles. It paid off.'
Runner-up was Stoletheshow and trainer Rikard Skoglund stated after the race 'he's had a long season. He deserves a break.'
