Rothmans Championship

On the 19th December of the same year, it was the turn of the first heats from the Rothmans championship, in which Isard was registered to race and was selected to compete in heat number 4 together with the following horses: Grillebois, Iscale, Jouteur du Clos, Helianthe, Gag du Cadran.  Horse Ibriz was also due to take part in this race but in actual fact it had not competed.

Here the race distance was that of 2150 metres and the win went to Isard, in front of Jouteur du Clos and Helianthe.  Thus these horses qualified for the semi-final together with 21 other horses which had competed in the other seven heats which had been held, three of which on the day of Isard du Pont’s win, the other four in the following week, that is on the 2nd January 1983.  It is worth noting that this horse’s time that day was of 1’20 per kilometre.

So, on the 9th January, it was the turn of the semi-finals, and that in which Isard took part had the following field of horses:  Jose, Highlander, Isard du Pont, Isard de Play, Jollus, Galaad, Duc de Vendee and Irmak.  Here nobody could stop Isard, which managed to win well in a time of 1’18’2, in front of Jose with Jollus placing third.   Thus, these three qualified for the final.  As one can see here, with the passage of time, Isard’s timings continued to show improvement.

Everybody was eagerly awaiting Sunday, 16th January when the final was due to be held.  Here the finalists were: Don Diego II, Helianthe, Jollus, Jouteur du Clos, Iacchus, Eclair Bleu, Jalium, Isard du Pont and Jose.  Isard du Pont’s backers which by now one can say were continuously increasing, suffered the biggest fright of their lives, when this horse fell to the ground on the racecourse together with its driver, and remained on the ground for several seconds until it was released from its sulky and equipment.  At this stage the race which had just started, continued without the horse which was to be the star of the Marsa racetrack, and here the win went to Jouteur du Clos.

One should remark that the said Jouteur du Clos was to be Isard’s main challenger in every race in which they participated together.

Here there were many who imagined that Isard du Pont had some serious injury, but once again this was not so. Indeed, on the 23rd January 1983 this horse competed in a class A race, together with 13 other horses.  On that occasion, he had turned in another great performance, and managed to win in front of Irmak, with the horse Ismont managing to place third.  Isard’s time here was of 1’19’4 when the distance was of 1600 metres.

So, with the said win Isard managed to be promoted to Malta’s top class, the A A1.