Sunday, January 25, 2009

Prix D'Amerique

Today the Prix D'Amerique went in France. I stopped taking French in grade 8 so I have no idea what they are saying. However, a picture is worth a thousand words, so they tell me. This sure does look exciting.

15 comments:

Valerie Grash said...

Wow! First, what a herd, and then having them go 2700 meters (c. 13.5 furlongs, or nearly 1-3/4 miles). My limited knowledge of harness racing here is just about every race is 1 mile, correct? Are there any that are stamina-testing like this one? I went to the race’s official website, and the video version there begins slightly earlier than the clip you posted from YouTube—it is WAY too cool how the horses actually get into position to start: http://www.prix-amerique.com/en/la_course/lacourse.html

And what an amazing facility! Thanks for sharing this.

Pull the Pocket said...

Thanks for the link. Better quality.

When people tell me that harness racing is boring, I get my back up :) That is anything but boring.

A couple things there: The horses wear less equipment to go straight.... the drivers would be all fired here for going four wide all teh way around..... and standardbreds are hearty beasts; a true test of speed and stamina which is fun to watch , and something we do not see here too often.

PTP

Wind Gatherer said...

What was up with that one horse that peeled off about 3/4 of the way through? Was he off stride?

What a race.

Anonymous said...

Cela était un lien stupéfiant et amusant rempli que vous avez fourni là.

G. Rarick said...

I train gallopers in France, so my trotting knowledge is limited, but we all share the same TV channel so I see quite a bit, and I have been out to Vincennes for the Prix d'Amerique, which is fun no matter what discipline you're in. But the standard race distances here for trotters are 2,100 meters and 2,700 meters. I've never seen anything as short as a mile (although I'm sure there are some special speed criteriums or some such at that distance). As for wearing less equipment, yes the horses in the Amerique are good enough to not need too much horrible tack. But I've seen horses in lesser-quality races have so much stuff on them I don't know how they can move. Multiple bits, blinkers that open and close, all sorts of gadgets. We also, as you probably know, have many races for ridden trotters, which is always....interesting.

Pull the Pocket said...

Offstride=DQ. Horse goes back to the barn for oats.

Pull the Pocket said...

Thanks for that comment Mr. R. Interesting stuff that we don't get to hear about much here.

Valerie Grash said...

"Mr. R" is actually "Ms. R" :)lol

http://blog.gallopfrance.com

Pull the Pocket said...

Whoops.

Boy is my face rouge :)

Thanks Valerie, and sorry Mme. R.

Anonymous said...

here is the Canadian equivalent:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/content/air-mcnair-gutsy-in-xtreme-finale.html

now why dont we do this more often?

Pull the Pocket said...

If they dont get better weather for Xtreme Horsepower this year there has to be a higher power at work.

Anonymous said...

I was in the 6 inches of mud in the infield. It was the worst possible weather for that time of year.

BUT... they still put on the best show in Canada all year. IMHO that race was better than watching somebeachsomewhere win the superfinal by a million lengths.

And its just plain fun to bet 20 cent supers on an 18 horse field!!

Pull the Pocket said...

We promoted it last year on the blog. I think it is a great event and more people should give it a try. Maybe this years will get some good weather to really attract an outdoor crowd.

Lederman must think it is below 15C every summer in Barrie :)

G. Rarick said...

No worries; I've certainly been called a lot worse!

Anonymous said...

I didn't even know John Bothe spoke French?! Iron!

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