Paris — It’s not only the established older top horses that have the chance to secure a spot in the Prix d’Amérique; on Sunday (Dec. 21), two races will be run at Vincennes with both winners receiving wild cards for the big event.
Four-year-olds will meet in the Criterium Continental over 1-5/16 miles with a total purse of €240,000.
Seventeen horses will start: five from Italy, four from Sweden, and the rest French.
The race looks very open. The home team has strong contenders in Lovino Bello (Eric Raffin), Lombok Jiel (Pierre Yves Verva) and Liza Josselyn (Jean Michel Bazire), while Italy’s best chance is Frank Gio (Matthieu Abrivard), and Bullet The Bluesky (Daniel Wäjersten) is Sweden’s top hope.
The Prix Tenor de Baune, for 5-year-olds, also with a total prize pool of €240,000, will be run over 1-11/16 miles with a standing start, the same as in the Prix d’Amérique.
Seventeen horses will start, and here there is an overrepresentation of foreign horses — 10 of them versus seven French — three each from Sweden and Norway, and one horse each from Denmark, the United States, Germany and Italy.
The races at Vincennes can be watched live at www.letrot.com. The Prix Tenor de Baune is the fourth race, starting at 9:15 a.m. (ET), while Criterium Continental is the seventh race, starting at 11 a.m. (ET).