Breeders Crown: French Wine pops the cork in Open Trot final

French Wine posted the biggest victory of his career to date by winning Saturday night's $600,000 Breeders Crown Open Trot final at Woodbine Mohawk Park from off cover in 1:50 1/5 for Jason Bartlett and Nancy Takter.

Up Your Deo (Dexter Dunn) hustled to the front from post ten in a 26 2/5 quarter, briefly let a two-wide Hillexotic (Austin Hanners) clear and then re-moved to the top. Behind that, Southwind Coors (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) settled in third ahead of favored Lexus Kody (Yannick Gingras). French Wine was slotted behind Lexus Kody and Periculum (Scott Zeron) was on Bartlett's helmet.

The half was posted by Up Your Deo in 54 3/5 as Lexus Kody began a first-over move that carried him into second at the 1:22 1/5 three-quarters and also brought French Wine and Periculum into contention. However, Up Your Deo was still full of trot at 37-1 and turned for home first.

In the lane Up Your Deo was game under Dunn's urging but weakened inside the final eighth as the closers activated. With Lexus Kody still plugging away from first-up, Bartlett sent French Wine to his outside with Periculum further out, and French Wine struck the front in deep stretch before he held Periculum at bay by a neck. Lexus Kody was third, followed by Southwind Coors and two-time Breeders Crown champion Amigo Volo (James MacDonald) got fifth.

"I thought this race in particular was going to be a little bit of positioning early in the first turn. I didn't think it was going to be cut and dry like it was last week," Bartlett noted after the race. "I figured there were going to be a couple of leavers from the outside and then depending on what Yannick and Scott did going into the first turn, I had to kind of play off them and see. I kind of wanted to be behind one of them second- or third-over.

"It's been a pleasure to drive him. He's a classy old horse and tonight he showed up when it mattered."

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Takter took over the training of French Wine, a 5-year-old Bar Hopping stallion owned by Daniel & Jean-Christophe Plouffe with One Legend Stable Inc., prior to his third-place effort in the Caesar's Trotting Classic on September 19 at Harrah's Hoosier Park. Overall, the Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld-bred has a summary of 16-11-12 from 48 outings, has put away $1,609,133 and paid $13.80 to win.

"I thought that he had it because he's a true champion," Takter stated in the winner's circle. "He loves his job, this horse, and he absolutely looks forward to every moment that he's on the racetrack, so I think that really helps him."

Michael Cote-Gagnon of One Legend Stable also praised Takter for the job she's done with the horse after taking over.

"We were looking for his first win Grand Circuit win because this guy is such a professional champion," he said. "He's got everything you're looking for in a trotter. We were looking for some luck and tonight is the night.

"Nancy had a really big challenge with this guy because he was going, I wouldn't say nowhere, but he wouldn't compete against these guys. You see everything is possible in this game. Tonight, it's a magical moment. Now he's beating the best trotters in the world in 1:50. We're speechless."