by Karsten Bonsdorf, USTA web newsroom correspondent

The French trotter The Best Madrik scored big in France on Sunday afternoon (Feb. 28), winning the first classic race for 3-year-olds, the Criterium des Jeunes.

The Best Madrik — a $200,000 yearling at the Trotting Promotion sale in 2008 — not only paid for himself, but secured his future by winning the Criterium des Jeunes at Vincennes.

Mark Kendell photo

The Best Madrik was a winner in the Criterium des Jeunes.

The race had a purse for the winner of $107,500, but this amount was doubled by the sales company, so the owner of The Best Madrik got a total of $322,500 for the win! In 2008 Trotting Promotion introduced a Super Bonus of $215,000 together with the other big French sales company, Agence Francaise du Trot, which would be paid to the owner of a trotter bought at the yearling sales at Vincennes or in Deauville who won the Citreium des Jeunes. The Best Madrik was sold at Vincennes to the Ecurie des As.

The Best Madrik went into the race as an outsider — he was 14-1 in the betting — although he had five races under his belt and had won three of them.

Trainer/driver Jean Etienne Dubois gave The Best Madrik a pocket trip behind leading favorite Torino d’Auvillier, driven by William Bigeon.

Down the stretch Torino d’Auvillier drifted to the outside, making racing room for The Best Madrik, who went on to win by a half-length. This was the fifth victory in this prestigious race since 1995 for Jean Etienne Dubois.

The Best Madrik is sired by Coktail Jet — the classy trotter that Jean Etienne Dubois campaigned and won the Prix d’Amerique and the Elitlopp with.

Lisa America scores in Italy

Hall of Famer Lou Guida is the owner and breeder of the 5-year-old Italian trotter Lisa America, who won the Gran Premio E.N.C.A.T at San Siro in Milan over the 1-5/16th mile distance.

Lisa America, who is trained by Jerry Riordan, had the top Finnish driver Jorma Kontio in the bike. Despite having to trot without cover for most of the trip, Lisa America won in a new race record of 1:54.3f (mile rate). The purse for the winner was $46,500.

This was victory number 15 for Lisa America, who is sired by world champion Varenne and out of a mare sired by Victory Dream.

Lisa America has lifetime earnings of $830,000.

Swedish bettor scored big

A Swedish bettor won $9.4 million in the V75 Saturday afternoon — the highest payoff ever in European horse racing.

The bettor was very lucky, as his key horse in the last leg of the V75, Foreign Life, was scratched shortly before the start. Instead he got Alien’s Kiss at the coupon and as Alien’s Kiss won at $7.40-1 the big win was a reality.