by Dean A. Hoffman

On Saturday evening, Jan. 24, 2009, I was making my way up the steps to the ballroom at the Hotel Terrass in the Montmartre section of Paris. I was en route to a cocktail party on the eve of the Prix d’Amerique, the great French trotting classic to be contested the next day.

Suddenly I heard someone calling my name. I turned and spotted Swedish trotting journalist Lars Dahlgren. I’d known him for many years.

“Dean, there is a horse that you must watch tomorrow at Vincennes,” he told me. “He’s not in the Prix d’Amerique. He’s only a four-year-old, but he’s a French horse that has the speed to race with the best in America. His name is Ready Cash.”