by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

French trotting sensation Bold Eagle was again in a class of his own, winning the prestigious Prix Octave Douesnel at Vincennes on Sunday afternoon (Dec. 13).

Gerard Forni photo

Bold Eagle won the prestigious Prix Octave Douesnel at Vincennes on Sunday afternoon.

Bold Eagle, driven by Franck Nivard, was an easy winner of the 1-11/16th mile event for 4-year-old trotters in a new race record of 1:57.2 (mile rate). The old record was 1:59.1 (mile rate).

Bold Eagle is heading to the Prix d’Amerique and the English bookmaker Unibet has him as the favorite at 9-4.

Bold Eagle will race again in the Criterium Continentale over 1-5/16th miles at Vincennes on Dec. 27. It is a race for 4-year-old trotters. After that race Bold Eagle is scheduled to take on older trotters for the first time in the Prix de Belgique, which is raced at Vincennes a fortnight before the Prix d’Amerique. The Prix de Belgique is the fourth and last test race for older trotters leading up to the Prix d’Amerique.

Sebastian Guarato trains Bold Eagle.

Sunday featured the second test race, the Prix du Bourbonnais, won by Un Mec d’Heripre, driven by Franck Nivard.

Un Mec d’Heripre was in command the whole trip. It turned out to be a race where no one was eager to make a move before the stretch and the win time was just 2:00.1 (mile rate) over the distance of 1-3/4 miles.

Un Mec d’Heripre, who is trained by Fabrice Souloy, will most likely skip the Prix d’Amerique and will be aimed for international races around Europe and maybe also the United States in 2016.

It was a great day for trotting at Vincennes Sunday afternoon, where the Criterium des 3 Ans — the biggest race for 3-year-old French trotters — was won in a close finish by Charly du Noyer, driven by Yoann Lebourgeois, by a nose followed by Cobra Bleu, driven by Pierre Vercruysse.

The purse for the winner was $120,000.

This was second big win for Charly du Noyer this year as he also won the big Italian race, Gran Premio Orsi Mangelli, on Nov. 1. Charly du Noyer, who is trained by Philippe Allaire, has a lot of North American blood in his genes; in fact he is bred 5×5 to Speedy Crown on the maternal line and on the sire line he has Star’s Pride.