by Thomas Hedlund

Bold Eagle was served a perfect trip when Prix de Belgique was held at Vincennes racetrack in Paris last Sunday, but despite that fact, the son of Ready Cash couldn’t catch the leader, another son of Ready Cash named Bird Parker.

The Philippe Allaire trainee won Prix du Bourbonnais in December and now Prix de Belgique in January. Two of the four Prix d’Amerique prep races have seen the 7-year-old trotter on top of the result list.

In the Prix de Belgique, Bold Eagle was second over for driver Franck Nivard and could easily have made contact with leader Bird Parker in the last turn, but Bird Parker fought strongly and had no thoughts about letting Bold Eagle pass by in the stretch.

Allaire’s horse won in 1:57.3 (mile rate) over 1.6 miles.

The Swedish trotter Readly Express (Ready Cash) had a bad start, but finished incredibly strong from last position and was third when the finish line was crossed.

On Thursday morning, trainer Jerry Riordan made the decision to keep his International Trot winner Twister Bi out of the field of 18 horses in Prix d’Amérique. Twister Bi was not 100 per cent healthy when he raced in Prix Tenor de Baune on Dec. 24, where he finished fifth behind winner Readly Express.

“Twister Bi had a bad lung infection when he raced the last time and he hasn’t really recovered from that, yet. I don’t want to risk anything with this horse and now we’re skipping the rest of the winter meeting in France and aiming for the big races in Scandinavia in the forthcoming spring,” Riordan told HRU.

The American-born trainer still has a chance in the big race in Paris on Jan. 28, since his Ringostarr Treb qualified with a third-place finish in the Prix du Bourbonnais in December.

Prix de Belgique replay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IedY28QHjOk