by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

The top French driver Eric Raffin will probably not try to remember Sunday (Feb. 1) for too long.

He was first past the post in two races, but in both races his horses were disqualified and placed last for being rough gaited. The total prize money for the winners was $153,000 and Raffin lost 10 percent of that.

France is the only big country in Europe with trotting races that still has a rule that if a trotter is rough gaited during a race, it must be disqualified and placed last. In Scandinavia, this rule had been changed more than 30 years ago.

Eric Raffin was behind the Swedish-trained, but German-bred Indigious, who wore down race favorite Anna Mix with Franc Nivard in the bike just before finish line after having enjoyed a pocket trip. But the judges found that Indigious had been rough gaited down the stretch and the purse for the winner went to Anna Mix.

Later on in the day the brave mare Roxane Griff, with Eric Raffin in the saddle, was first past the post in the main event, the Prix de l’IIle de France — an under saddle trot with a purse for the winner of $102,000.

Roxane Griff, who is the all-time richest French mare, won the world’s richest under saddle race, Prix de Cornulier, a fortnight ago, and just like in that race, she drifted to the outside Sunday afternoon and posted a narrow victory followed by the outsider Udayama, with Gaetan Prat in the saddle. But Roxane Griff, who could have made history winning this Group 1 race as the first 10-year-old trotter ever, was found being rough gaited down the stretch and the winning purse of $102,000 was handed to Udayama.