Koctel du Dain was second past the post in the Group 1 race Criterium des Jeunes, but was awarded the victory.

It took the judges at Vincennes more than 10 minutes to produce a verdict after the field in the prestigious Criterium des Jeunes was past the post.

Two trotters had battled it out down the stretch — Kamehameha with Björn Goop on the inside and Koctel du Dain with David Thomain on the outside. Kamehameha, trained by Sweden’s Tomas Malmqvist, won by a head, but after the inquiry the victory was handed to Philippe Allaire-trained Koctel du Dain.

The reason — twice down the stretch Kamehameha had interfered with Koctel du Dain.

Koctel du Dain — sired by Boccador de Simm — was declared the winner of the Criterium des Jeunes, the first Group 1 race for the French crop of 2020.

Koctel du Dain won the 1-11/16 mile event in a new race record of 1:57.2 (mile rate). The purse for the winner was 90,000 Euro.