If anyone ever doubted that France has the strongest harness racing program in the world, all you’d need to do is visit the winter meeting at the Vincennes track in the suburbs of Paris.

Saturday’s program has nine races and they carry an average purse of C$100,000.

And this is certainly not the biggest day in French trotting. That will be the last Sunday in January when the Prix d’Amerique is contested for a purse of more than C$1.5 million.

Some of the hopefuls for the Prix d’Amerique will see action in the Prix du Bourbonnais on Saturday at Vincennes, including this year’s winner Meaulnes du Corta. This fast and durable trotter can be erratic at times, but when he’s hot, he’s hot. He won the 2009 Prix d’Amerique just jogging.

Saturday he’ll face such strong contenders as Olga du Biwetz, One du Rib, Niky, Perlando, Orlando Sport, Glen Kronos, and Infinitif.

Ready Cash, the wunderkind colt of French trotting in recent years, will go in a separate race for 4-year-olds. That will go a long way toward determining if he’s ready to meet the monsters in the Prix d’Amerique or if he needs another year of seasoning.

The Prix du Bourbonnais is contested over 2,850 meters or about 1-3/4 miles, but three horses will start with a 25-meter handicap.

It’s always hard to read too much into these prep races for the Prix d’Amerique because it’s no secret that drivers are often using them as tighteners for the big show on Jan. 31.

French trotting is almost a different sport from what we enjoy in North America. The emphasis is on racing mature horses over longer distances and keeping the stars of the sport on the track for many years. Maybe that’s why trotting in France enjoys so much support.