The 6-year old French trotter Bold Eagle, driven by Franck Nivard, won the third leg of the French Triple Crown, the Grand Prix de Paris, easily on Sunday afternoon (Feb. 26) at Vincennes in Paris, France.





This was the first time since Bellino II in 1976, that a trotter won the Prix d’Amerique, Prix de France and Prix de Paris, which are the three big international races during the winter meeting.





Gerard Forni photo Bold Eagle emphatically ends a 41-year drought to become the fourth French Triple Crown winner on Saturday afternoon in Paris.

In the back of the field for most of the trip, Bold Eagle, finished strongly to win the 2-5/8 miles event by a length in 1.59 (mile rate) followed by Briac Dark and Bird Parker.





In fact, the first five finishers were all from the French 2011 crop.





Bold Eagle picked up the winner’s purse of $190,000, plus a Triple Crown bonus of $320,000.





He is just the fourth trotter in history to win the Triple Crown and will now concentrate on stud duties. He will still be in training, however, as the next big target for the French top trotter is the Elitlopp in late May at Solvalla.





The Elitlopp will be the first time ever that Bold Eagle will race over the distance of a mile, as to date his shortest race has been 1-5/16 miles.