by Thomas Hedlund

Idao de Tillard (Severino), last year’s Prix d’Amérique champion, entered the $125,000 Prix de Bourgogne with some question marks surrounding him. The entries prior to Sunday’s (Dec. 29) task hadn’t told the fans that Idao de Tillard was back in the same shape as he showed last year, but after a perfect trip in a high pace event, Thierry Duvaldestin’s champion sprinted to an easy win in a mile rate of 1:52.1 over 2,100 meters.

The race went on perfectly for Idao de Tillard as leader Don Fanucci Zet came to the three-quarters-of-a-mile marker in 1:21.2. The Swedish hope in the event could obviously not keep up the speed when strong horses like Go On Boy and Emeraude de Bais pushed for the lead just before the last turn.

Unfortunately, Emeraude de Bais went off-stride on the lead in the turn and driver Pierre-Yves Verva did not succeed in getting his horse out of the way. Instead, Emeraude de Bais became an obstacle for pretty much all of the horses that raced on the inside, including Don Fanucci Zet, who still followed quite easily behind the new leader.

Replay here.

Go On Boy and Idao de Tillard were the two big names that qualified for the big race in the end of this month and the fact that particularly these two managed to grab their spots in Prix d’Amérique, respectively, means that the field is shaping up and suddenly looks much stronger than before the Prix de Bourgogne. Idao de Tillard and Go On Boy both have star qualities and will be among the favorites in the big Grand Prix.

Another new name qualified for the PdA. Justin Bold finished strongly from a bad post as third and already qualified, while Hokkaido Jiel finished fourth.

One more test remains. The $125,000 Prix de Belgique, two weeks before the Prix d’Amérique and let’s hope that Jushua Tree will be on the entries list.

At the moment, here are the horses that have qualified for Prix d’Amérique 2025:

Hussard du Landret

San Moteur

Hooker Berry

Just Love You

Josh Power

Emeraude de Bais

Hokkaido Jiel

Fakir de Mahey

Keep Going

Idao de Tillard

Go On Boy

Justin Bold

Twelve trotters are in already, with four more spots at stake on Jan. 12. That means at least two horses will enter the Prix d’Amérique by lifetime earnings since 18 contenders will contest the race at Vincennes on Jan. 26.

BAZIRE’S STABLE IN THE FIRING LINE AFTER POSITIVE DOPING TESTS

Four horses in Nicolas Bazire’s and his father Jean-Michel’s stable have tested positive for Glycopyrrolate, an antispasmodic substance and Jean-Michel wrote about the news in his own column in French media Paris-Turf on Jan. 1.

“The veterinarian has made it clear to me that it may be related to respiratory tract treatment,” wrote Jean-Michel in Paris-Turf. “Now, samples have been taken from the stable on shavings, hay, stable box-disinfectant, in order to try to find the origin of these positive tests. It is bizarre, but it will be a suspension.”

Among the four positive samples, Liza Josselyn is included and any kind of news like this is bad for the industry.

It was not many weeks ago that Levino Bello claimed a group 1-race in Paris while the 3-year-old (now 4-year-old) was suspended from racing after a positive doping test in Italy in November.

All horses in the Bazire case have tested positive during the winter meeting in Paris and what the outcome will be in this story is hard to say at this point.

More news from the Bazire stable and this one is more uplifting. Jushua Tree, by many considered as the best horse in the French J-crop, might be back on track for the $125,000 Prix de Belgique on Jan. 12. It was earlier said that Jushua Tree would miss the rest of the meeting in Paris, but around Christmas time, Jean-Michel announced that his horse may be ready for the really big races very soon.