Malta’s representative at the 5th leg of the Mediterranean Horse Racing Championship for Trotters, Charles Camilleri did very well to finish third in the Prx De La Mediterranee race held at the hippodrome de Cagnes Sur Mer in France.

Riding one of the outsiders, ORGANDINA, 36 year old Camilleri, who was also the 2009 top Maltese driver in Malta started the race positioned at the back of the field. After the first 500 metres, Charles started to slowly pick up positions following one of the favourites, horse number 4 OPALIN driven by the French Driver, Jean Paul Fasquelle. In the meantime Italian driver Attilio Golia, who was also the Championship leader, lead from the start on horse number 3 OREGON CERISE.

With 600 metres to go, and as the speed was increasing, Fasquelle attacked Golia on the outside, with Golia's horse OREGON CERISE breaking as it was put under pressure. In the meantime out came ORIAD LESMELCHEN driven by the Serbian representative Vladimir Belogrlic which finished off very stronly to win by a small margin. Non championship participant PAPY DE CESNY was second with ORGANDINA, closely following in third place.

After the race, Charles Camilleri said "it was not easy to drive such a horse, as he could not speed up as much as he could as the horse was not in good form and could easily break from trotting." He continued, "in the end and third place is a very good result." Horse trainer Mr Cormy, called after the race to congratulate Camilleri with the excellent performance, which was the horse's best for some time.

The Malta Racing Club representative at the track, Mr Mark Vella, said that "we are very proud of today's performance which once again proves that the Maltese level of horse racing drivers is at the highest levels. Now Malta stands in second place with a very good chance to win this year's overall championship at the last race to be held in Russia at the end of this month". In fact Mr Vella, Marketing Director, also confirmed that the leg in Croatia will not be held.

RACE RESULT
1st ORIAD LESMELCHEN - V. BJELOGRLIC - 1'15"7
2nd PAPY DE CESNY - J.L. ESTABLE - 1'15"9
3rd ORGANDINA - CH. CAMILLERI - 1'16"0
4th POST SCRIPTUM - D. ZORKO - 1'16"1
5th OPALIN - J.P. FASQUELLE - 1'16"1
6th PELITO - I. SERIK - 1'16"8