by Thomas Hedlund

The French winter meeting approaches its zenith as the $793,500 monté race Prix de Cornulier is on the menu today (Jan. 23) at Vincennes.

Next Sunday (Jan. 30), it’s time for the big bang in the $1,133,000 Prix d’Amérique. The field will be set on Thursday (Jan. 27).

In the last B-race, the $135,000 Prix de Belgique, Jean-Michel Bazire qualified another horse for the Prix d’Amerique. His Feydeau Seven (Rodeo Josselyn) sprinted to a safe win, while runner-up Diable de Vauvert finished strongly after a tough trip. Rebella Matters (Bazire) claimed third place and she was already in the Prix d’Amérique.

This afternoon, 15 trotters will fight for the big title in the Prix de Cornulier. Prior years’ dominant trotters Bahia Quesnot and Bilibili are the most merited horses in this year’s field, but the race seems pretty open this time around.

The distance of 2,700 meters makes this the world’s biggest race for trotters under saddle.

Prix de Cornulier 2022

Horse – Jockey – Trainer

Hirondelle du Rub – Jean Loic Claude Dersoir – Joel Hallais

Fantaisie – Yoann Lebourgeois – Nicolas Bridault

Florida Sport – David Thomain – Charles Antoine Mary

Granvillaise Blue – Camille Levesque – Pierre Levesque

Et Voila de Muze – Anthony Barrier – Sébastien Guarato

Feeman de Houelle – Eric Raffin – Franck Leblanc

Unique Juni – Matilde Herleiksplass – Jörgen Westholm

Gladys des Plaines – Mathieu Mottier – Gilles Curens

Flamme du Goutier – Antoine Wiels – Thierry Duvaldestin

Zarenne Fas – Guillaume Martin – Jerry Riordan

Bilooka du Boscail – Nathalie Henry – Yves Hurel

Etoile de Bruyere – Adrien Lamy – Charles Dreux

Feeling Cash – Francois Lagadeuc – Philippe Allaire

Bahia Quesnot – Matthieu Abrivard – Junior Guelpa

Bilibili – Alexandre Abrivard – Laurent Claude Abrivard

Ideal du Chene wins Prix de Pardieu

The 4-year-olds battled under saddle in Saturday’s (Jan. 22) $135,000 Prix de Pardieu at Vincennes and Julien Le Mer trained Ideale du Chene (Bird Parker) impressed a lot from the lead for jockey Paul Philippe Ploquin.

Ideale du Chene hit the front position after 250 meters and when Ploquin asked for some more gas at the top of the stretch, the 4-year-old mare left her opponents by many lengths and she came home in mile rate 1:56.2 over 1.3 miles.

Dreamer de Chenu wins Prix de Brest

Bazire’s super gelding Cleangame recorded a mile rate of 1:56 when the $105,000 Prix de Brest was held earlier on the race card and Cleangame ended up as the fastest horse in the field, but finished fourth after a heavy trip three wide, almost all the way. Cleangame started 50 meters behind winner Dreamer de Chenu (Timoko), who upset due to a nice trip served by Louis Baudouin. The mile rate over 1.7 miles was 1:57.3.