Friday evening at Paris-Vincennes included the day’s Q+ race and events for lightly raced performers. The first such race was the Prix Ceres (purse 33,000€, 2850 meters, 16 starters) and 25/1 Eagle Eyes (5g First de Retz-Reethi Rah Jet) rallied from nearly last to first in the lane to score timed in 1.13.2kr.
This half-brother to Bold Eagle won for the seventh time in 28 career starts now for 89,250€ earned. Bred by Jean Etienne Dubois the winner was reined by Hughes Monthule for trainer Sebastien Guarato and owner Pierre Pilarski. 3.6/1 Eliot Lucayelo was second for Pierre Vercruysse and 6.3/1 El Costo du Banney took third for Yoann Lebourgeois.
In the Prix Salon Cheval Paris 2019 (purse 33,000€m 2850 meters, 13 starters, three year old females) saw 8.5/1 Gourgandine (3f Bold Eagle-Udine-Coktail Jet) scored for pilot Franck Ouvrie, trainer Kevin Vanderschelden, and owner Jean Pierre Dubois timed in 1.15kr.
She recorded her second career victory for life earnings of 40,036€. She was four wide to a spot fourth on the pegs and then was shuffled and boxed to tenth off the final bend. Ouvrie find a way to the far outside and she exploded for the win. 6/1 Geisha d’Asbaz (3f Rolling d;Heripre) and 4/1 Geisha Speed (3f Uriel Speed) followed the winner to the line.
The Quinte+ race of the day was the Prix Gemma (purse 37,000€, 2850 meters, 16 starters) and it saw mostly longshots galore at the top, so many that there were no exact order winning tickets. And, there were only six disorder winners, those returning 12,943.80€. THe 2.9/1 Deesse Noire scored for Eric Raffin clocked in 1.13.6kr. 17/1 Dolly du Quesne (6f Prodigious) was second for Bjorn Goop ahead of 193/1 Dotka de Loiron (6f Goetmals Wood), 25/1 Darne du Rill (6f Goetmals Wood) and 8.3/1 Dolly de Chenu (6f Carpe Diem).
by Thomas H. Hicks, for Harnesslink