by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

There’s a lot of drama around some of the biggest European trotting races these days.

A fortnight ago, the French trotter Un Mec d’Heripre was disqualified and placed last in the Aabergs Memorial at Jägersro. Last week it was official that the Swedish trotter Caballion — trained in France by Franck Leblanc — was disqualified from the victory in the Copenhagen Cup because of a positive doping test.

Then on Sunday (Aug. 10) the French driver Credric Megissier, with Uhlan du Val, was stood down a month by the judges because he interfered with Timoko, driven by Bjorn Goop. The incident happened in the Grand Prix de Wallonie at the Mons track in Belgium.

The Grand Prix de Wallonie is raced over the 1-7/16th mile distance; that is two laps on the Mons track.

After the first lap Megissier with Uhlan du Val attacked leading Timoko with Björn Goop, but hung to the inside and interfered with Timoko, who went off stride and was disqualified.

Uhlan du Val led the field until the last bend, where he tired and finished out of the money.

The race was won by the second favorite, Roi du Lupin, driven by Anthony Barrier. The purse for the winner was $120,000.