Avenue du Monde (Champs Eysees and Marla out of Pentire) won the Prix Wemyss Bight, a second division 2100m turf handicap, at the St Cloud racetrack today in the west suburbs of Paris today. She caught the favorite, Santorina (Trajano and Madinella out of Anabaa) at the wire, winning by a nose.
Avenue’s jockey, Michael Barzalona, led her out of the gate easily and placed her comfortably at the back of the field just to the outside of Santorina who was at the rail on the backstretch. The two competitors ran comfortably with the pace, a few lengths behind the leaders.
As they came out of the final turn, the two were side-by-side. Santorina’s jockey, Alexis Badel, went to the rail in the stretch while Barzalona went wide around the field. As they both cleared the other horses, they came together with Santorina in front. However, Michael didn’t stop riding, both he and the horse fought to the end taking the race by a nose in a photo finish.
Avenue du Monde went off as second favorite paying 6,90 for a euro bet and 7,70 online. Place bets were 2,20 and 2,10 respectively. The going was considered soft at 3.6. Time of the race was 2’12”80.