by Magnat

Race-meetings will be held at the Marsa race track next Friday (13th) and Sunday (15th) May. Friday’s meeting will start at 6.30pm with Sunday’s beginning at 2.00pm.

Both are long meetings with Friday’s comprising eleven races and Sunday’s meeting twelve races. These are mainly trotting events except for two flat races in Friday’s race card. All races are over short distances, with the 2,140m distance being used for trotters and 1,250m for thoroughbreds.

This weekend is dominated by the “Societe’ d’Encouragement a’ l’elevage du cheval francais” (SECF) championships reserved exclusively for French horses. A championship for horses in each class will be held and a total of around 220 horses are registered to compete.

The championships are named after famous French racecourses, the Prix de Vincennes for the Premier class, the Prix d’Enghien for the Gold class, the Prix de Cabourg for the Silver class, the Prix de Cagnes Sur Mer for the Bronze class and the Prix de Caen for the Copper class.

We have three heats for each of the Copper, Gold and Premier classes (six horses from each heat qualify for the semi-finals being held in a couple of weeks’ time), five heats for the Bronze class (four qualifiers from each heat) and six for the Silver class (four qualifiers from each heat).

Friday’s meeting includes the Prix de Caen and the Prix de Cagnes Sur Mer heats, with those of the Prix de Cabourg, the Prix d’Enghien and the Prix de Vincennes being held on Sunday.

Many top class horses are taking part in these championships, with the Prix de Vincennes heats in particular featuring a registration list of 28 top quality horses. These include among others Tazza l-Kbira winners James de l’Iton, In Vitro du Bourg and Kakisis, past Prix de Vincennes winner Joker de Choisel, this year’s MRC Premier Grand Final winner Lou Petiot, last year’s Premier class Summer Championship winner Lady de Vindecy, and many other horses which were popular in France during their racing career there and which today are popular amongst us.

A great spectacle is anticipated in all these races..

Friday’s programme also features another international encounter with a race involving Maltese and drivers from Malmo, Sweden. This is another interesting initiative which continues to expose our drivers to their foreign counterparts and enables them to gain international experience.

On Friday, we also have two flat races, one reserved for Class A and the other for Class B, the former with a full field of eight registered horses and the latter having seven registered horses. These races feature horses coming from recent good performances such as Nuage de la Tour (3 placings in the last three races), Adorabile Med (2 placings in the last three outings) and others in Class B, and Kimberley Downs (2 wins in two races) and others, as well as four newcomers (Marivan (IT), Pride of India (US), Rougement (IT) and Sandy’s Dream (IR)) in Class A.

Thirteen trotters are also scheduled to make their debut this weekend, i.e. Friendly Frazer (GER – Bronze class; previously scratched) in the Malta – Malmo Amateur race, and French horses Oeillet Blanc, Olympus du Bouffey, Omega des Arpents, Opera du Pam, Orgeat, Orio de Marancourt and Oris du Lupin, all in the Prix de Cabourg heats – Silver class, Neptune Vinoir, Niky du Donjon and Oh L’Amoroso, all in the Prix d’Enghien heats – Gold class, and Mentor de l’Iton and Mystere d’Urfist both in the Prix de Vincennes heats – Premier class.

Last meetings
Among the highlights of the last weekend, we saw the International Ladies’ Challenge race on 2,140m in which female drivers from Finland, Norway, Sweden and Malta took part. This was accompanied by an attractive backdrop including playing of the national anthems of the participating nations, presentation of mementoes to the participating drivers and other interesting features.

The race itself was a triumph for the Swedish drivers who won the first four places. The win went by a good margin to Nympheta de Bisoir driven by Swedish driver Louise Medelberg, in front of Lady June (Carina Skold), Above Roland (Elin Gustavsson) and The Womaniser (Anna-Karin Rundqvist).

We also had In Vitro du Bourg’s return to racing – and to winning - after some months of rest. It gave another display of splendid running to register the 32nd win of its career in Malta in the best time of the season to date on the 3,140m distance of 1’17’5 per kilometre – another excellent result for this horse. It was followed by Isolated, Kakisis and Wiss Night Hawk, which each registered another good time of 1’17’8 per kilometre in this Premier class race.

The other Premier class race on a 3,140m distance saw Milord Barbes taking the lead early on and maintaining it till the end to take its first win in Malta also in a time of 1’17’8 per kilometre, in front of Lovely Mab, Gentle Way and Energy Launcher.

We also saw three interesting Gold class races, which resulted in wins for Kingpin La Marc, Lucky des Bristants and Major de la Vronde.

Finally, last weekend, our representatives in the Mediterranean Horse Racing Union championships, driver Charlo Debono (in Italy) and jockey Ramon Grima (in Morocco), were really unlucky in this leg.

Charlo was driving an outsider and did not finish among the front runners in his race. On the other hand, Ramon’s horse was withdrawn from the race; so Ramon was denied the opportunity of participating in it and Malta was denied the possibility of earning precious points; a big disappointment indeed!

Famous relatives
The 32nd win in Malta for 2010 Tazza l-Kbira winner In Vitro du Bourg reminded me of an interesting article written by Mike Orland around 2 years ago when this horse achieved the record for prize-winnings in Malta.

The article mentioned that In Vitro du Bourg’s sister from its father’s side is the popular mare Nuit Torride, which to date has won around Euro825,000 in France, both being the progeny of French stallion Bolero du Coq.

James de l’Iton, another Tazza l-Kbira winner (2008 and 2009), is the nephew of famous French horse General du Lupin, winner of around Euro2.5 million in prize-winnings and various prestigious titles. Indeed, Angie Vera, James de l’Iton’s mother and General du Lupin are both the progeny of French stallion Lutin d’Isigny.

Kakisis, this year’s Tazza l-Kbira winner is the uncle of Quaker Jet, winner of over Euro1.2 million in prize-winnings to date and many prestigious races. Kakisis’ father, Dahir de Prelong also produced Jenny Jet, mother of Quaker Jet.

And this is the case also for many other horses racing in Malta, whatever their country of origin. Thus, for instance, among others, horses such as Arnie Sensation (SE), Crane Beach (GER), Niro (NO) (all of which competed locally this year) and others are sons of the US stallion Super Arnie, which also produced the Swedish horse Gigant Neo which won the Prix d’Amerique in 2006.

And these are only some examples presented only for illustration purposes, with most of our horses being related to world-famous horses. Although they may not necessarily be at the same level of their more famous relatives, a knowledge of their pedigrees enables us to appreciate our horses’ noble bloodlines and to hope that they have inherited winning characteristics similar to their relatives’.

I take this opportunity to thank Mr Nicholas Farrugia, a veritable encyclopaedia on trot racing, for his precious guidance and for patiently providing very useful information to enable us to produce such write-ups.

We wish you all two exciting meetings this weekend.