by Karsten Bonsdorf, USTA web newsroom correspondent

The 7-year-old trotter Singalo, with David Thomian in the saddle, was a narrow winner in the Prix de Cornulier — the world’s richest under saddle race — held at Vincennes over the 1-11/16th mile distance on Sunday (Jan. 20) with a total purse of $925,000.

Gerard Forni photo

Singalo, with David Thomian in the saddle, won the Prix de Cornulier.

Singalo, who was an 18-1 shot, was second throughout the race as last year’s winner, Quif de Villeneuve, led the field.

Around the last corner Singalo took over and looked like a sure thing going into the stretch. But suddenly he started to drift and on the inside Quarry Bay with Camille Levesque came up very strongly. However, Thomain managed to get Singalo back on track and won by a half-length in 1:56.2 (mile rate).

Singalo is owned and trained by Louis Baudron and this was his third winner of a Group 1 race.

Louis Baudron has a top pedigree as he is a grandson to Jean Pierre Dubois as well as Roger Baudron; both have won the Prix d’Amerique and are among the greatest names ever in French harness racing.

The same is to be said about second place finisher Camille Levesque, whose father Pierre Levesque has won the Prix d’Amerique twice and in 1985 he won the Prix de Cornulier with a trotter trained by his grandfather, Henri Levesque, another of the great horsemen in French trotting.