It looks as if there’ll be a serious invasion of Canadians pouring into Paris next month for the Prix d’Amerique. Each year I work with the Swedish travel firm Equi Tours in arranging a tour of Paris and the Prix d’Amerique and I’ve received several calls in recent days from Canada. It looks as if we’ll have a great representation of Canadians on the tour.
The Prix d’Amerique is a Mecca for European trotting devotees and North Americans who have been understand why. Ask Blair Burgess and his wife Karin. They were on the tour in 2009 and had a great time.
The process of sorting the Prix d’Amerique pretenders from the contenders has started and I was pleased to see that Ready Cash won at Vincennes in Paris yesterday. When I saw him in January, I was stunned with the speed he displayed. European trotting experts told me he was one French horse with the speed to challenge the best in North America as well as the stamina to dominate the best on the continent.
Ready Cash is still young---only five---by Prix d’Amerique standards, but he looks the part and his upcoming preps will tell us if he’s ready.
France has the strongest harness racing program in the world, but it’s always been based on seeing mature trotters that stay on the track for many years. The trend is now toward earlier speed as more North American blood has been introduced into French pedigrees.
Ready Cash, for example, is from the male line of Bonefish, the ’75 Hambo winner owned by Mac Cuddy of Strathroy, Ontario. His dam is from the male line of Bonefish’s sire Nevele Pride and Ready Cash’s second dam is by Workaholic (Speedy Crown), so you can see the influence of North American breeding.
In January we will see if that pedigree is good enough to carry Ready Cash to victory in the Prix d’Amerique.