Third qualifier at the Grand Prix d’Amérique, the Critérium Continental will top the bill Sunday, December 23 at Vincennes Hippodrome de Paris. Only the winner will have the right to participate in the World Trot Rally Championship.
It’s a very rare double-effect: winning a Group I race, Critérium Continental label, and winning an entry ticket for the Grand Prix d’Amérique. The Criterium Continental holds a special place in the French and even European calendar.
The principle
The Continental Critérium brings together the European cream of 4-year-old trotters. If some of them have already met in the autumn in the Grand Prix UET, this appointment offers a first meeting of its kind on the ring of reference: the Great Track Vincennes Hippodrome of Paris. The 2,100 meter course with autostart departure is a crossroads of the skills acquired by the best from anywhere in Europe. The winner of the Criterium Continental will benefit from a participation priority in the 2019 American Grand Prix.
Advantage France
From the first qualifier at the 2004 Grand Prix of America, the tone was set: the success of Opal Viking, a Swedish trotter associated with the Finnish Jorma Kontio (European driver with the most titles in the number of victories), launched the challenge to the French. Very quickly, the tricolores raised the bar and the victory of Offshore Dream in 2006 was going to make the spirits: it will become the first to achieve the double Critérium Continental-Grand Prix d’Amérique. This followed a very French period before the success in 2014 of Tumble Dust for Denmark and the Swedish drive of Björn Goop. Two years later, Treasure Kronos succeeded Bold Eagle. Last year the “Bleus” took the title with the victory of Doria Desbois.
Criterium Continental, Group I, 2,100 meters (departure at autostart)
Race record: 1’10”3 – Un Mec d’Heripré (2012)
