Work on Elitloppet begins in earnest during the Prix d'Amerique weekend. Solvalla's sporting director Anders Malmrot walked around the stable hill at Vincennes on Saturday and Sunday and listened to the situation with the hot Jean Michel Bazire.
- The tone is actually better now than last year.
Anders Malmrot is back home in Stockholm after the trip to Paris and the world's biggest trotting race, the Prix d'Amerique.
The last weekend in May it is time for Elitloppet on the own track. But everything is relative and four months still feels quite far away, he says.
- "You don't just give the go-ahead after a weekend like this. It's more a case of talking to as many people as possible in the stable and hearing what the various trainers have in mind for the season with several of these top horses," says Solvalla's sports director.
The 2019 Prix d'Amerique was a huge triumph for Jean-Michel Bazire, who took first, second and fourth place with horses from his stable. He drove himself Belina Josselyn to victory, before the surprise and new acquisition from Norway Looking Superb. Davidson du Pont finished fourth.
Jean-Michel Bazire is known to be a little angry with the Swedish trotting judges and thinks he has been unfairly treated on previous visits to Solvalla and has therefore stayed away from the elite race weekend for a few years.
Maybe France's big one can be on the verge of a rethink.
- I do hope so. I think the tone is better now than last year when for a while it sounded like it was closed with all his horses. Then which one it will be or if it will be a horse from Bazire's stable, well it's too early to say, says Anders Malmrot.
In addition to Bazire's top trio in the Prix d'Amerique, he was drawn to the horse that won Saturday's Prix du Luxembourg.
- Cleangame that he won with on Saturday was absolutely fantastic. And we know that he has Aubrion du Gers still in the stable with which he will make his annual debut later.
Prix de France, Prix de Paris, Grand Criterium de Vitesse in Nice and Lotterian in Italy are major races to be completed before invitations can be sent out.
- Many people I talk to mention the Prix de France and then they go down to the Lottery. So there are further discussions after that basically," says Malmrot.
Bold Eagle is matched against the "French elite race" Grand Criterium de Vitesse on Sunday, March 10 and may probably start breeding work after that. Elitloppet 2020 may be considered but not this year's edition.
- Readly Express was fabulously good as third on Sunday. So we just have to keep our fingers crossed that the spring will be so good for the horse that there will be full focus on Elitloppet from Timos Nurmo's side. Daniel Redén says that he aims for Elitloppet with Propulsion if everything works. It's great news for Elitloppet. It was completely wrong the race on Sunday that was lost already at the start. But the finish was five-star. Propulsion showed in the Prix d'Amerique that there was no danger with him, but it was more events at the start that made it wrong, concludes Solvalla's sports manager Anders Malmrot.
