by Gordon Waterstone

After breaking my Prix d’Amérique maiden last year and realizing I was eligible to non-winners of two this year, I embarked on my journey to Paris on Wednesday (Jan. 21). I arrived in Paris at 5 a.m. local time on Thursday, an amazing 75 minutes early. There must have been a strong tailwind as all the planes landing from the U.S. were arriving early, which made my wait for Moira Fanning and her daughter Caroline shorter than planned.

We were all riding to the hotel together so I had to make my way from Terminal 2E to Terminal 1, and after being a bit confused finding the tram, I made it in 45 minutes. And that included a slight delay as I had a slight stalemate with a security officer as he kept insisting I wish him a good morning before he gave me directions. I was able to find the Fannings and after finding our driver we made it to hotel. I was lucky as my room was ready despite it being only 8 a.m.

Let me give you my core group for this trip so I don’t have to repeat myself. The group included: John Campbell, Moira and Caroline Fanning, Tom Charters, Gunjan Patel, Elizabeth Caldwell, Tina Brauti, Callie Davies-Gooch, Henrik Lundell, Justin Fisher, Ryan Macedonio, and Chris and Michele McErlean. We were joined in part by Chris and Natalie Tully and Dave and Les Offenberg. Thank goodness that we had a fine leader and general in Moira as somehow, she was able to keep us all in line.

Thursday was spent leisurely but on Friday I made the trip to Vincennes with Henrik Lundell and Gunjan Patel for the track’s media day. I was told this was the first year the media day was held, and there were a lot of people gathered around for the press conference when we arrived. When we walked in the door, we were greeted by Norwegian journalist Kristin Odegard, who gave me a nice hug and kisses on my cheeks. I met Kristin a couple years ago at The Red Mile when she was there for the Kentucky Futurity.

I wish the horsemen in the U.S. would take notice of how things are done in France as I believe it would really enhance everything greatly. A video presentation was shown and then the trainers and drivers of all 18 scheduled Prix d’Amérique starters were interviewed. Two or three horses did not have representatives on hand, but the trainer had a taped video where they apologized for not being present, but they had racing obligations elsewhere.

There was a festival of sorts inside the grandstand on Friday, so I walked around a bit looking at all the vendors. I was looking around and I heard someone say, “Aren’t you going to say hello?” I had been standing next to Joe Faraldo and didn’t even realize it. Joe and I talked for a few minutes before I continued on my walkaround.

Friday night a group of nine of us went to the famous Moulin Rouge for the show, and it was outstanding. The showroom holds 850 and there wasn’t an empty seat. The place is like the old days at the Las Vegas showrooms as people were seated at tables. While a dinner package was offered, we ate elsewhere before and our tickets only included many bottles of champagne. My glass never got empty as Chris made sure to keep it full.

On Saturday I again made my way to Vincennes with a group for the afternoon races, and after having lunch, I joined Moira, Ryan, Justin, and Henrik to head to the paddock area. Horses are not assembled by race but by stable, so the area was huge,

I had a chance to meet and talk a bit with renowned Swedish horseman Daniel Redén. While my group was walking around a pigeon scared the bejabbers out of me as it flew by and clipped me with a wing. Thankfully, I emerged unscathed by the minor collision. Not even a hint of internal bleeding.

We also ran into famed Swedish photographer Adam Strom during our paddock travels. I got a nice greeting from Adam and history was made in sorts as he asked someone to take a photo of us together. Adam usually takes photos only with females, so for me to be asked was indeed special.

At the races I had a chance to catch up with Swedish owner Anders Strom. When I walked over to Anders’ table, I saw Ron Burke sitting there. Ron was in Paris with his son Brad, nephew Kevin and a friend of theirs, with the latter three going on for a skiing trip. When we were leaving, Swedish agent Robert Lindstrom saw me and came over to say hello, which I thought was a very nice gesture.

Saturday night was again an outstanding dinner. I’m not sure I’ll be allowed to go back to the restaurant though as I got in trouble with the owner. When we arrived, we were greeted by a cute, small white dog. The dog was at my feet while I was eating, so I snuck a little food to the dog. Next thing we knew the dog was tied up in the other room, and when I asked the owner why, I was told because he could tell the dog had been given food, which was a no-no.

After a day of sun, we woke up Sunday — Prix d’Amérique Day — to clouds. And as predicted, it began to rain shortly after the start of the race card. My entourage in the massive dining room was divided into groups of 12 and five, and I was in the latter. I sat with Elizabeth, Tina, Judy, and Callie.

There was a two-hour gap between races 2 and 3, when the 18 Prix d’Amérique drivers were introduced to the enormous crowd. There was music and a choregraphed horse dressage, which was moved just off the racetrack due to the wet conditions as rain had begun to fall.

To read the full story about the famed trotting race, please read Thomas Hedlund’s recap in last Monday’s HRU. Congratulations to the connections of the winning Hokkaido Jiel, who won his first race since June of 2023 at odds of 37-1.

As I noted earlier, it was a humungous crowd. Emmanuelle Morvillers, Vincennes head of international department, later told me the attendance was more than 36,000. There was also an attendance of 19,000 at Saturday’s races, making the grand total more than 55,000. While it was tough to move around on Saturday, it was virtually impossible on Sunday.

In addition to Emmanuelle, I also have to thank director of marketing and communications Marianne Simonnot for all her help.

We all left the track shortly after the Prix d’Amérique was over, but our caravan was delayed slightly as one of the group — who asked (demanded) I keep their identity a secret — lost their phone and wallet. A frantic search turned up nothing, but then Justin jumped into a phone booth, came out wearing a cape, and took off in search of the property.

I told everyone that there was no chance Justin would find anything, but after 15 minutes he came back and had the phone and wallet — missing only the cash — in his hand. Somehow the property landed in a lounge and somebody answered the phone as Justin had called the number 17 times in his quest to find it.

The Hambletonian Society once again had a restaurant reserved Saturday night for about 75 people. What a spread that was, with the food offerings including chicken, lamb, salad, and snails. Unlike last year when I needed help opening the snail shells, I had no trouble this time around.

There were several toasts made through the evening, with John making one to celebrate the fabulous career of Moira, who is slowly making her way toward retirement. The exact date seems to keep being pushed back, but I believe it will be in the near future.

While I wanted to walk back to the hotel so I could walk off the food, we took an Uber. Being a bit tired from the long day I went back to my room to give myself ample time to recover as a small group of us were scheduled to have lunch at the Eiffel Tower. Which we did, and it was fabulous.

Once again, I need to thank my agents Nick Salvi and Amy Hollar for negotiating my deal with Dave Briggs for this special edition of Backstretch. While technically not my sponsors for this column, I did have a chance to see Hunterton Farms’ Steve and Cindy Stewart in my Sunday travels at Vincennes as they were seated on the main level of the dining room.

And it’s as if this column writes itself as our van driver on the way back from Vincennes on Sunday had to stop for gas. With Henrik’s help, the conversion pretty much translates to more than $7 a gallon. That’s a lot more than the $2.59 I paid before leaving for this trip.

Until we meet again, hopefully in the fall in Lexington, let me once again say thanks for reading.