by Karsten Bonsdorf, USTA web newsroom correspondent

The prestigious French winter meeting at Europe’s biggest harness racing track, Vincennes in Paris, is off and will last until March 5, 2011.

Gerard Forni photo

Commander Crowe won his debut under saddle race at Vincennes.

The meeting consists of 729 trotting races of which no less than 251 are raced under saddle; the French call it a “monté-race”. The total prize money in the meeting is $58.2 million or an average per race of no less than $77,737. And in France you don’t have to pay an entrance fee in most of the races — and if you do, it’s only a few bucks.

The highlight of the meeting is the Prix d’Amerique, which carries a total purse of 1 million Euro, or $1.41 million. The Prix d’Amerique is always raced on the last Sunday in January. This year it will be contested on January 30.

One of the first big group races in the winter meeting was the Prix Reynolds — an under saddle race with a total purse of $155,000.

The Swedish trotter Commander Crowe was the only foreign horse in the field and even though it was the first time that he raced in an under saddle race, Commander Crowe was outstanding and won in 1:54.4 (mile rate) under Mathieu Abrivard.