Bazire suspended again in France
by Thomas Hedlund
French top driver and trainer Jean-Michel Bazire has recently returned to the game in the sulky after a 15-day suspension and now it seems like the dominant Bazire will have to face another punishment after an incident at Vincennes during the Saturday race card.
Bazire had three horses from his stable in a race for 5-year-olds and the judges at the Paris track didn’t like the way Bazire gave order to co-driver David Thomain in the last turn. Bazire himself drove Ghazi B.R. second over and gave a signal to Thomain, driving Calina in third over, to attack three wide in the last turn.
Calina won the race and Ghazi B.R. finished second. The judges at Vincennes decided to hand Bazire an eight-day suspension, beginning on Dec. 18, according to Swedish harness racing media sulkysport.se.
Face Time Bourbon dominant winner
French 4-year-old champion Face Time Bourbon (Ready Cash) had no problem in $110,000 Prix Octave Douesnel at Vincennes racetrack in Paris on Saturday afternoon. Björn Goop was eager to reach the front position with Sébastien Guarato’s trotter and after 250 meters the betting favorite was in the lead.
The Prix Octave Douesnel turned into a sleepy affair from there, with no opponents seriously challenging Face Time Bourbon, who won in a mile rate of 2:00 over 1.6 miles. However, that performance is far from what Face Time Bourbon will have to turn in if he goes to the Prix d’Amérique in January, but we’ve seen that this 4-year-old is something extra and both speed and strength exist when the temperature will rise against older top trotters.
The next objective for the Ready Cash son will be the $220,000 Criterium Continental against 4-year-olds from all over Europe. Swedish star Campo Bahia (Muscle Hill) and Italian-bred Zarene Fas (Varenne) will most probably enter the Continental, to be contested on Dec. 22 at Vincennes.
