Belina Josselyn wins Prix de Paris

The French Queen of Trotting, 8-year old Belina Josselyn, was favored to win the Prix de Paris at Vincennes Sunday (Feb. 24) afternoon. The marathon race is contested over the odd distance of 4,150 meters or 2-5/16 miles.

Favored Belina Josselyn wins the Prix de Paris. Gerard Forni photo.

Driven by Jean Michel Bazire, who has been the champion French driver on 20 occasions, and is also her trainer, Belina Josselyn won very easily in 1.58.4 (mile rate) followed by the Italian bred trotter Tony Gio driven by Christophe Martens.

The Prix de Paris was the third leg in the French Triple Crown, which consists of the Prix d’Amerique, Prix de France and Prix de Paris. Belina Josselyn has now won two of three races–Prix d’Amerique and Prix de Paris.

In the Prix de France, she went off stride shortly after leaving the gate and was disqualified.

If Belina Josselyn had won the Prix de France, she would have been eligible to an extra purse of 150.000 Euro – or $170,000. Her owner will not receive a trophy for Belina Josselyn being the best trotter in the series.

The mare raced seven times during the Vintermeeting and has two wins and one second. She collected a total of $675,000 dollars in these races.

It could have been $55,000 dollars more as Belina Josselyn was disqualified as the winner of the Prix de Belgique for interference.

The mare will now be rested, but will return to action later this year.

That means, that she will not race in the next big international race in France, the Grand Criterium de Vitesse at Cagnes sur Mer at on March 10.

In this mile event Bold Eagle and Readly Express are most likely to be the stars.

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