by Thomas Hedlund

French harness racing has a well-known closed pedigree book. French-bred horses typically can only be from sires standing in the country. On Thursday (Sept. 19) evening, the program made an exception.

Quite surprisingly, French harness racing has decided that American-bred sire Tactical Landing (Muscle Hill—Southwind Serena) will be available for 60 mares in France and the committee in French harness racing’s head organization also voted that the offspring are approved to be included in France’s book of trotters. That means that horses by Tactical Landing will count as French-bred and this decision is not only surprising, it also tells the rest of Europe that French breeders, to a greater extent, can produce a new kind of breed. French blood, mixed with American blood is a proven method that works if a breeder wants to get the best of two worlds. Strong blood from France and speed from America will likely end with an even stronger dominance from France’s part in the sport.

The French pedigree book was closed for ”outside” sires in 1993 and between 1988 and 1992, French harness racing and the U.S. had an agreement which allowed 20 mares from each country to use the other country’s sires. America never took the opportunity to use French blood, but French breeders were more liberal in the matter. Some of the very best trotters in the world, bred in France, are products of the agreement from 1988. The facts about this agreement and the result of it has been very well described in a column by Claes Freidenvall at sulkysport.se in Sweden.

Tactical Landing, with two consecutive wins in Hambletonian as a sire, plus a dominating 4-year-old in Sweden, will be a very interesting contribution to an already dominating country in the business and the future will be bright in the land of the Tricolor, and maybe less bright for the rest of Europe.

GO ON BOY BEST IN BELGIUM

Horsy Dream and Idao de Tillard were the two big names when Mons racetrack played host to the $165,000 Grand Prix de Wallonie on Saturday (Sept. 21) afternoon. But the top duo couldn’t beat another well merited French trotter who has fought beside the very best trotters in Europe for a couple of years. Romain Derieux’s Go On Boy (Password) started from post 8 behind the car and Derieux pushed his horse to the lead after 500 meters. Ampia Mede Sm followed on his back while the two favorites Idao de Tillard and Horsy Dream were settled in third and fourth over, respectively.

Midway into the race, Eric Raffin started a three-wide attack with Horsy Dream, but Clement Duvaldestin noted the move from Raffin and lifted his Idao de Tillard out in a tight situation in the moment after. Idao de Tillard landed first outside, a few lengths behind the leading Go On Boy, while Horsy Dream got a very defensive trip in his fourth over position.

Go On Boy and Derieux heightened the pace on the backstretch and throughout the last turn, whereupon the chasing opponents had problems challenging for real. Go On Boy sprinted to a safe win, and Idao de Tillard bested stablemate Ampia Mede Sm in the hunt for the silver medal.

Horsy Dream attacked on the far outside in the last turn and finished extremely fast in the stretch, but he had too many lengths to make up when the attack was set in.