It's Prix D'Amerique Time

We are in the final countdown for the Prix D'Amerique which will be held this coming Sunday, January 29, 2012 at Vincennes-Paris in France.  This ultimate event in racing for older horses also known as the World Harness Racing Championship will be contested for the 91st time and is scheduled to go off at 3:30pm Paris time.  Eighteen horses will contest for the €1,000,000 purse, racing at the classic distance of 2,700 meters (1.6777 miles).  The race is classified as a Grade 1 International event, the highest ranking possible in Europe.

For those who have seen the race before, a little known fact is if nine or less horses are entered, the race will be contested using the starting gate.  However, if as typical, more than nine horses are entered to compete for racing honors, the race will be started by what they call a 'loudspeaker start' which more resembles the standing start of the steeplechasers in this country.

The final field has not been drawn for the race but Ready Cash is the early favorite, winning three of the four major 'B' qualifying races (there are a total of six qualifying races).

That being said, I have collected for your review all the qualifying races for the Prix d' Amerique; enjoy viewing them.  My thanks to VarenneFan who posted these videos on YouTube.  If you want to see the best races in the world, subscribe to VarenneFan on YouTube.

The Prix d' Bretange won by Ready Cash:


The Prix du Bourbonnais also won by Ready Cash:


The Prix de Bourgogne also won by Ready Cash (starting to note a trend):


The Prix de Belgique won by Royal Dream (Ready Cash finished 3rd):


The Critérium Continental won by Timoko:


The Prix Ténor de Baune won by Sévérino:


And lastly, while not an official qualifying race, the Prix de Cornulier, a monté race where the winner is traditionally invited to the Prix d'Amerique.  This year, the winner was Quif de Villeneuve who set a new race record (mile rate of 1:55.4):