by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

The French trotter Bold Eagle, driven by Franck Nivard, was an easy winner of the Prix de Belgique, raced Sunday afternoon (Jan. 17) at Vincennes.

The Prix de Belgique is the fourth and last test race for the upcoming Prix d’Amerique and this was the first time that the 5-year-old Bold Eagle had to compete against the best older trotters in Europe.

Gerard Forni photo

The French trotter Bold Eagle, driven by Franck Nivard, was an easy winner of the Prix de Belgique.

But Bold Eagle is a trotter in his own class and the faith in him was very high. He was 1-2 in the betting and among the 24 newspapers who had made selections for the race, no less than 23 of them had Bold Eagle as the winner.

And Bold Eagle did not let his followers down.

Franck Nivard in the sulky had great confidence in his trotter and waited until 300 yards to go before he made his move. Bold Eagle flew around his opponents and won very easily, followed by long leading Voltigeur de Myrt, while Oasis Bi was third.

This was win number 20 from 23 races for Bold Eagle, who has stamped himself as the new darling of French trotting. Bold Eagle has more than 5,500 followers on Facebook and Twitter and he also has his own website, boldeagle.fr.

And next up is the Prix d’Amerique. Bold Eagle will make history if he wins that prestigious race. Not since 1994 has the winner of the Prix de Belgique gone on to win the Prix d’Amerique.

And a 5-year-old trotter winning Prix d’Amerique is also a rare thing. The last time that happened was in 2007, when Offshore Dream won.

But there is no doubt about Bold Eagle being a fantastic trotter and it is very difficult to imagine him being defeated in a fortnight in the Prix d’Amerique. But we have to remember — no race is won before the first horse is past the post.