by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

The French trotting sensation Bold Eagle, driven by Franck Nivard, won the Prix d’Amerique (1-11/16th mile distance) in a new world record of 1:54.3 (mile rate) on Sunday afternoon (Jan. 29) at Vincennes.

That was the second time in a row Bold Eagle won this prestigious race and the second time he was timed in a new world record. Last year he won in 1:54.4.

Gerard Forni photo

Bold Eagle won the Prix d’Amerique on Sunday afternoon at Vincennes.

Bold Eagle won by 2-1/2 lengths followed by the mare Belina Josselyn, driven by Jean Michel Bazire. Those two are both French trotters, while Norwegian trotter Lionel, driven by Matthieu Abrivard, finished third. North American bred Propulsion, driven by Ôrjan Kihlström, finished fourth after a tough and unlucky race.

North American owned Treasure Kronos finished ninth, while Wild Honey went off stride and was disqualified and placed last.

After two recalls — both forced by the mare Anna Mix, who refused to participate in the race — the field was sent off. Nivard took an easy start behind Bold Eagle, but as the race unfolded he found room second over behind Belina Josselyn.

Timoko, driven by Björn Goop, was in command with a half-mile to go and at that point Propulsion was advancing three wide and came up outside Belina Josselyn, who followed Voltigeur de Myrt.

Going into the last turn and with 500 meters to go, Bazire behind Belina Josselyn forced his way out and Nivard followed him as a shadow. This move became very important to the outcome of the race.

Belina Josselyn came first into the stretch, but couldn’t find an answer to Bold Eagle, who took over and won very easily.

The purse for the winner was $480,000.

Bold Eagle has now copied his sire, Ready Cash, who also won the Prix d’Amerique twice.

Bold Eagle might have two more races during the winter meeting in Paris, the Prix de France (1-5/16th miles) and Prix de Paris (2-9/16th miles) in February. If Bold Eagle manages to win all three races, he will earn an additional $320,000 to the win purses in each race. That will add up to $1.175 million.

In late May he will take on Nuncio in the Elitlopp in Stockholm. That will be the dream race of the year in Europe.

After the win Sunday the connections of Bold Eagle got an invitation to race in the Yonkers International Trot in October, but it is very doubtful they will accept it.

There was a record crowd of 37,024 trotting fans at Vincennes Sunday afternoon. That was 1,400 more people than last year.

The betting at the racetrack went up by 6.2 percent to $1.8 million, but the total handle on the day fell by 11 percent to $32.6 million.

The late scratch of Anna Mix, who refused to participate in the race and forced two recalls, is probably to blame for some of the decline. Anna Mix has now been banned from racing at Vincennes in races with a standing start.

Ready Cash, who is the sire of Bold Eagle, had a marvelous day with a total of four winners in the 10 races. Nine son or daughters of Ready Cash raced and besides the four wins, one came second and one fourth. Those six Ready Cash products earned a combined $688,705 on the day.

Another stallion who had quite an impact on the result in the Prix d’Amerique was the now 27-year-old Coktail Jet, himself a winner in the Prix d’Amerique, but also the Elitlopp. Bloodlines from Coktail Jet could be traced in five trotters in the Prix d’Amerique and they finished first, second, third, fifth and seventh.