by Thomas Hedlund

Jean-Michel Bazire took a chance and succeeded when he tried to get his 5-year-old top trotter Davidson du Pont (Pacha du Pont) to reach the 2019 edition of Prix d’Amérique.

In the $136,000 Prix de Bretagne, the first of four B-races, many of the best elderly horses in France, with additional features from a couple of other countries trotters, were gathered at Vincennes racetrack. Bold Eagle’s appearance draw a lot of interest to the race and the son of Ready Cash was not the only horse that the fans were longing to see.

Prix de Bretagne, like all the other three B-races, is nowadays not what it was in past years in terms of competition and on-track battles. The rules of entering Prix d’Amérique have changed and now the three best horses in each B-race are guaranteed a number in PdA, which means that there’s no room for preparation races for the horses that want to enter the track the last Sunday in January.

With excuses or not, Bold Eagle did not make an appearance that’s associated with his earlier performances in races connected to Prix d’Amérique. Sébastien Guarato’s star got a perfect cover trip and when driver Franck Nivard followed in the back of Davidson du Pont with a half mile to go, everything looked perfect for the double Prix d’Amérique winner. But Bold Eagle acted without power and energy and it turned out that trainer Guarato had darkened a minor injury that Bold Eagle had got earlier during the week.

Still, and with reference to the disadvantage that was known to him before the race, Guarato was a little bit disappointed by Bold Eagle’s performance as fourth last Sunday.

“Already in the beginning of the hill back stretch he was a beaten horse. There was not enough energy today and next time, on December 9 in Prix du Bourbonnais, we will pull his shoes off and we’ll see how that will affect him,” Guarato said.

Winner Davidson du Pont, a 5-year-old who has shown good capacity in several races during 2018, did a really great performance since he had to race without cover, three wide, the last part of the race.