This final day of the harness racing Winter Meet on Saturday at the Hippodrome Paris-Vincennes included four groupe level races and the Quinte+ race of the day.
Action began with Grace de Fael (4f Sam Bourbon-Acquarella de Fael), off at 3.9/1, taking the Gr. II Prix Louis le Bourg (monte, purse 100,000€, 2850 meters) at Vincennes, racing with shoes, and with jockey Alexandre Abrivard in the irons.
Thierry Duvaldestin trains the 1.13.9kr clocked mare for owner Jose Fernandes. Grace now has eight career wins for 230,000€ earned. 27/1 odds Guide Moi Forgan (4m Neutron du Cebe) was second for jockey Christopher Corbineau with third earned by 12/1 Get de Play (4m Gazouillis) handled by Adrien Lamy for owner/trainer Franck Leblanc.
The featured event on this last day of the Vincennes Winter Meet was the Gr. I Prix de Selection (purse 200,000€, 2200 meters, four to six year olds). The 1/10 favorite Face Time Bourbon (5m Ready Cash-Vita Bourbon) scored in 1.10.9kr with Bjorn Goop aboard for trainer Sebastien Guarato and owner Scuderia Bivans Srl. Face Time won for the 20th time in his career that has so far yielded 1,651,050€.
The 11/1 Enino du Pommereux (6m Coktail Jet-Noune du Pommereux) took second for* Matthieu Abrivard aboard for trainer Sylvain Roger and owner Noel Lolic. 21/1 Frisbee d’Am (5m The Best Madrik) was third for Alexandre Abrivard and trainer Richard Westerink.
Face Time had a remarkable Winter Meet with four wins including the Grand Prix d’Amerique, three of those being Gr. I wins, plus a second place finish in the Grand Prix France. He also lowered his personal time badge to 1.10.6kr in the Criterium Continental.
The Gr. III Prix Henri Desmontils (purse 90,000€, 2850 meters, monte, International) was up next and saw 4.2/1 Evangelina Blue (6f Speedy Blue-Happy Blue) score, timed I 1.14.2kr, with Mathieu Mottier aboard for trainer J.P. Mary, the winners’ ninth career victory now for 662,000€ earned. 4.1/1 Etoile de Bruyere (6f Kenor de Cosse) was a game second for jockey Adrien Lamy. Third was Caban Prior (8g Sancho Panca) handled by Aurilien Desmarres.
The Prix du Plateau de Gravelle (Gr. III, purse 90,000€, 2100 meters autostart, International) saw JMB on the victory stage as it went to 1.11.1kr timed Dorgos de Guez (7g Romcok de Guez-Landy Frometro) with trainer Jean Michel Bazire aboard. Dorgos won for the 21st time in a career that now shows 605,6580€ earned. He was off as the 8/10 odds favorite and he defeated 5.4/1 stablemate Colonel (8g Goetmals Wood-Royale Star) with Nicolas Bazire up for owner Ecurie des Charmes. Detroit Castelets (7m Neoh Jiel) took third for David Thomain.
The day’s Quinte+ race was the Prix de Montsoreau (purse 58,000€, 2700 meters, European) with victory to 3.9/1 Moni Viking (7m Maharajah-Jeunesse Dorec) with trainer Pierre Vercruysse up for owner Jan Lyng. This was his sixth victory in France and it raised his career earnings to 267,141€. Race time was 1.12.4kr.
The 9/1 Datcha (7f The Best Madrik) was second for J.Ph. Monclin and third was 33/1 Divine Mesloise. 35/1 Baron Daidou and 118/1 Altius Fortis completed the top five. The exact order Q+ payoff was 136,224€ to eight winning tickets. The Q+ pool was 4,185,945€ and 8,912,000€ was wagered on the race (all wagering pools).
The Paris-Vincennes Winter Meet is now complete. In addition to the performance of Face Time Bourbon the top drivers, jockeys and trainers based on number of wins are shown below:
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Drivers: Eric Raffin 69, Jean Michel Bazire 58, David Thomain 37
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Jockeys: Eric Raffin 25, Alexandre Abrivard 19, Mathieu Mottier 15
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Trainers: Jean Michel Bazire 83, Philippe Allaire 23, Laurent Claude Abrivard 23. There were three others with 22 training wins – Sebastien Guarato, Christian Bigeon and J.M. Baudouin
It was quite a race meet, horses and equine. Equine also saw great victories by Davidson du Pont and the exceptional Belina Jocclyn.
LeTrot, PMU files/photos
by Thomas H. Hicks, for Harnesslink
