World best target Prix d'Amerique

Bangkok Post
Published 31/Jan/2010 (01:53 PM)

Eighteen of the world's best trotters take part in the 89th Prix d'Amerique on Sunday, an event founded in 1920 to honour American soldiers fighting in World War I.

French rider Pierre Levesque celebrates before crossing the finish line to win the world's most prestigious trotting race, the 86th Prix d'Amerique, driving Offshore Dream at Vincennes horsetrack near Paris, in January 2007. Eighteen of the world's best trotters take part in the 89th Prix d'Amerique on Sunday, an event founded in 1920 to honour American soldiers fighting in World War I.
Around 40,000 spectators are expected to watch the action unfold at the Paris-Vincennes course here, while millions of dollars are waged worldwide.
"To take part in the Prix d'Amerique, it's a dream. To win it would be the ultimate," said Christian Bigeon who will be in charge of Paris Haufor in Sunday's event.
The speed record for the course is held by Offshore Dream (winner in 2007 and 2008), the horse of Pierre Levesque, who in 2007 set an average speed of 1:12.00.
This year, Levesque will drive Meaulnes du Corta - last year's winner with Franck Nivard - the most successful horse in terms of prize-money having won 2,355,760 euros.
"Meaulnes is very tough, in form and can pull off the double," said Levesque.
Fifth last year, and second in 2008, Swedish entry Opal Viking, driven by Jorma Kontio, is the best hope of the foreign entrants while Dutch hopeful Russel November (driven by Hugo-W-Langeweg Jr) and Ghiaccio Del Nord (Enrico Bellei) are among the leading amateurs.
The prize money for Sunday's race is a million euros, the majority of which goes to the winner.
The Prix d'Amerique will be closely followed in real time throughout the world, from London to Hong Kong, with massive sums of money waged.
In France, the record amount of money bet on the event was 37.9 million euros in 2006.