Red letter day for Haras Des Trotteurs

The premier harness racing meeting at Vincennes racetrack in Paris last Sunday proved a red letter day for Haras Des Trotteurs’ stallions, who sired the winners of two of the five Group 1’s.

Brillantissime’s four-year-old daughter Intuition won the feature race, the Group 1 240,000 euros Prix President de la Republique, the second-richest monte race in the world and one of the most prestigious of all French age classics. This mare is from the same maternal family as Haras Des Trotteurs’ leading sire Love You.

Just For Lova, a three-year-old son of Brillantissime, finished second in the Group 1 200,000 euros Prix Albert Viel, the first of only two French Group 1’s for the current crop of three-year-olds.

Timoko also enjoyed a great day with his progeny. Jelyson, a three-year-old by Timoko, took out the Group 1 Prix dÉssai, another prestigious monte classic carrying a purse of 200,000 euros.

Timoko’s champion son Etonnant was just pipped at the wire in France’s richest sprint, the 200,000 euros Prix Rene Balliere in a record equalling 1:51.1 rate for 2100 metres, while Bilo Jepson, an Italian-bred son of Timoko, finished runner-up in the Group 3 90,000 euros Prix Louis Chouteau.

Love You sired important winners in both hemispheres last Saturday night.

Queen Elida NZ continued her dominance of open age trotting ranks when she annexed the Group 2 $30,000 Matriarch Trot at Melton, while Rattle My Cage won a $50,000 division of the Graduate Series for four-year-olds at The Meadowlands, New Jersey in a sharp 1:50.6.

Venerate, who finished third in the Graduate, is also by Love You, while the runner-up Cuatro De Julio (by Trixton out of a Ready Cash mare) is a very close relative to the top priced trotter at this year’s Nutrien Equine Sale, the Volstead-Dream Island filly which fetched $120,000.

Love You was also represented by the three-year-old Cranbourne winner Iron Love, Yankee Lover (Shepparton) and the NZ winners Simone Lindenny (1:58.6, Addington) and Share The Love (Cambridge Raceway).

Orlando Vici sired two ‘new’ winners in the three-year-old Run Forest Run (Auckland) and the filly Illusion Epice, who won the first European two-year-old race for the season in Denmark.

Highly promising Quaker Jet three-year-old filly Revelstoke improved his record to five wins in 11 starts when she led throughout at Melton recently. She has now earned almost $40,000.

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink