Portugal Colonial - Bazire claims Prix d'Amerique with 'magnificent' Hooker Berry

Favourite Idao de Tillard's quest to land the sport's most sought after prize ended prematurely when he was disqualified shortly after the start.

Bazire, 51, suffered no such misfortune, enjoying a trouble-free passage to produce the six-year-old Hooker Berry with a perfectly timed run on the outside.

Passing the leading group up the short straight Bazire played to the packed stands - raising his right leg in the sulky in triumph as he crossed the line on the 15-2 shot.

"Magnificent," beamed Bazire, who won his first Prix d'Amerique in 1999 with the mare Moni Maker.

"We set off to follow and once I managed to get a free run it was over," added the trainer-driver from Le Mans whose son Nicolas won last year's edition.

Italian raider Ampia Mede SM came in second with Italiano Vero third.

This was the 102nd edition of a race founded as a tribute to the American soldiers who fought in World War I.

The 2,700m showpiece with one million euros in prize money is trotting's undisputed world heavyweight championship, drawing a crowd of 40,000 with bets of over 40 million euros wagered.

First run in 1920 at Vincennes, the hippodrome on the east of Paris, the Prix d'Amerique is trotting's equivalent to flat racing's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, staged across the French capital at Longchamp every autumn.

J.Oliveira--PC