by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

The heavy favorite Up and Quick, driven by Jean Michel Bazire, was an easy winner of the prestigious Prix de Paris — a marathon trotting race over 4,150 meters or approximately 2-5/8th miles — at Vincennes, Paris, France.

Gerard Forni/Scoop Dyga photo

Up and Quick won the Prix de Paris on Sunday in Vincennes.

This was the second year in a row that Up and Quick won this race, which is the last of the three big international trotting races in the Winter meeting at Vincennes. The two others are the Prix d’Amerique and the Prix de France.

Last year Up and Quick won in a new race record of 1:58.4 (mile rate), but he lowered that record Sunday afternoon to 1:58.1 (mile record). The purse for the winner was $205,000.

This was the first time since Bellino II won in 1997 that the winner of the Prix d’Amerique won the Prix de Paris in the same year.

Up and Quick is trained by Franck Leblanc who also trains the second place horse in the race, Anna Mix, driven by Franck Nivard.

The driver, Jean Michel Bazire, has now won this race five times. Legendary French horseman Jean Rene Gougeon is leading the way with seven victories.