Face Time Bourbon dominated in Paris
by Thomas Hedlund
Björn Goop drove Sébastien Guarato’s new top trotter Face Time Bourbon (Ready Cash) to a solid win in Sunday’s $272,700 Criterium des 3 ans ($272,700) .at Vincennes racetrack in Paris, France.
The particular race over Prix d’Amérique-distance 2,700 meters, approximately 1.7 miles, had collected many of the best 3-year-olds in France and the first choice, by far, Face Time Bourbon dominated the race once Björn Goop found the lead with 5/8ths of a mile to go. At that point, early leader Fly With Us, who was one of the toughest antagonists to Face Time Bourbon, got out of gait midway through the race and her driver Yoann Lebourgeois had to leave the field as soon as Fly With Us jumped over to pace instead of trot.
Goop took his chance and sent Face Time Bourbon to the lead and in the last turn the Swedish driver had full control over the field. Face Time Bourbon easily sprinted home in safe win in mile rate 1:59.4.
The son of Ready Cash started his career as a 2-year-old in August last year, with trainer Sébastien Guarato in the bike and it ended with victory. One more start was made 2017 and Face Time Bourbon showed that he really should be a horse for the biggest races in France. So far, he has nine wins in 10 attempts and the only loss came in May, when he was first at the wire but the judges disqualified him due to bad gaiting, a rule which is commonly used in France.
Yoann Lebourgeois, named as driver behind Fly With Us, has had a successful year in France 2018, but on Monday afternoon he and Jarmo Niskanen were involved in a serious accident in Le Mans and Lebourgeois has announced that he will not return to the racing tracks before 2019.
Driver and trainer Jarmo Niskanen is still at the hospital with several broken ribs and bleedings in his body.
Champion stallion Coktail Jet is dead
One of Europe’s most outstanding stallions is dead. Coktail Jet (Quouky Williams—Armbro Glamour), born 1990, won Prix d’Amérique and Elitloppet the same year, in 1996 and has served Europe with top trotters as a stallion since the end of the last century.
Trained and driven by Jean Etienne Dubois, Coktail Jet showed the racing fans that French horses (with a touch of American blood in the veins since Super Bowl was the sire of Armbro Glamour) could win big races in other ways than what we were used to regarding the French trotter. Coktail Jet had speed like no other horses and the victory in the 1996 Elitloppet 1996 was almost unreal for those who were at Solvalla that day. Coktail Jet’s home stretch is often named as one of the most thrilling in that category and the champion at the tracks also became a popular champion in the breeding business.
Love You, Look de Star, The Best Madrik and Saxo de Vandel are just a few of all top trotters Coktail Jet has bred in France and outside his home country, Yarrah Boko, Amaru Boko, Papagayo E. and Jetstile must be named as some of the most successful sons of Coktail Jet.
