Winter Update.
2021 turned out to be our biggest and best season yet. It finished on October 17 at Tir Prince Raceway with our Grande Finale Night, featuring the final legs of our Les Juniors series, the TROTBritain-Le TROTTEUR FRANÇAIS Criterium for both three & four year olds, alongside the TROT of Gold, Silver, Bronze & Chrome for the aged horses.
To be eligible for the Trotteur Français Les Juniors series, the horse needs to be either bred by a British breeder or be bought and nominated before the end of their yearling year. Fittingly it was a horse from each of these pathways picked up the honours on Finale Night. The British bred Icona Plasy won the Criterium des Trois Ans for the Evans families’ Plasy Bloodstock. Hilova Forlife won the Criterium des Quatre Ans for Kath Ellis and Peter Bradder who nominated the filly after taking the plunge at the 2018 Caen yearling sales. The Les Juniors series has been a long time in the making and has taken a concerted effort from British breeders and owners since 2016 to make it happen.
International Meeting Palma de Mallorca
We had the pleasure of sharing our progress on youth development and discuss future projects with many other trotting federations at the LeTROT Départment International – International Weekend which was this year hosted in Palma, Majorca thanks to the FECT (Spanish Trotting Federation). This started with a meeting of representatives from the nations that have a partnership with Le Trot to sponsor races for Trotteur Français in their homelands. Race and breeding stats for Trotteur Français were presented to all and we are pleased to say that these continue to show real growth for the breed in Great Britain.
Racing
103 races in 2021 up from 67 races in 2020 (covid), 72 in 2019 and 31 in 2015
€347,717 in prizemoney for 2021 up from €275,447 for 2020
80 Horses in training for 2021 up from 65 for 2020
57 Owners in 2021 up from 50 in 2020
28 Trainers in 2021 up from 25 in 2020
42 Drivers in 2021 up from 36 in 2020
Breeding
23 Mares Served in 2021 up from 18 in 2020
3 New Stallions Standing at Stud in Great Britain for 2021
Presentations were given on Animal Welfare and Young People In Trotting. This is the real benefit of these events – they give us an opportunity to learn from trotting nations with far greater infrastructure and experience than our own. Animal welfare is clearly going to be of very great importance everywhere moving forward. In the future, we can expect to see stricter regulations introduced around anti-doping, the whip, equipment and shoeing throughout Europe. TROTBritain will also be introducing a Pony programme in the future, but what was stressed at the meeting was that the priority should be on the young person loving the animal first and always, and enjoying participation in the ‘racing’ independent of the result.
The entire weekend was not spent in the conference room. However. We spent Sunday evening at the Hipodrom Son Pardo, where the programme included the international drivers race and an awards ceremony for the leading Trotteur Français from each nation. In the race John Henry Nicholson did us proud, driving to the trainers instructions and coming home a fast finishing 4th. If the gaps had come at the right time he would have finished closer but that’s racing! Congratulations go to Sean Kane from Ireland for winning the event. For the award ceremony Savannah Nicholson did the honours and collected the award for TROTBritain’s Trotteur Français Horse Of The Year, Diamant de Godrel.
Our annual Trotteur Français Sale selection tour took place at the end of November. As always we were looked after magnificently by the team from LeTROT Départment International, the organisational skills of Emmanuelle and Marianne making this task a pleasure. By the end of the two days at Grosbois, Meslay du Maine, Argentan and Cabourg (Mike Evans, Rhun Wilson and John Henry driving) we had found 17 horses that the selection panel thought suitable to go into the draw for GB buyers. On top of this, some buyers who missed out took up the option of buying a horse that the selection panel rejected for the draw. All in all, there are 25 new horses coming to race in Great Britain and we look forward to seeing them on the race tracks in 2022. Interestingly the average age of the horses selected this time is younger than in previous years, so we should get to enjoy seeing the newest Frenchies for many seasons.
The late autumn and early winter has also been a busy and successful one for current TROTBritain chair Bill Green. Geronimo Matica, who he trains, has just won its fifth consecutive race, making it 8 out of his last 9 races. Bill and his partner Therese Fontaeus are also the breeders and owners of Love You Long Time, who is racing successfully in Sweden, and recently picked up 2 victories.
Of course, the big news is that, on New Years Day, TROTBritain become the Governing Body of Trotting Horseracing in Great Britain and you will see lots more about the new era in the coming days and weeks
Meanwhile, happy Holidays and a healthy and lucky New Year.