Le Bon Mayennais marks debut with Premier victory

Yesterday's race programme at Marsa was made up of no fewer than 11 events, nine trotting, on the 2,140m distance, and two flat over 1,750m.

The Premier Class race was the main attraction of the afternoon.

Here, Clifforty Calleja stole the limelight as he drove Le Bon Mayennais, an 11-year-old trotter in its first race in Malta, to victory after jumping into the lead a lap from the end.

Frasse Filiokus was second behind Le Bon Mayennais and Le Coup de Foudre finished third.

In the first of the two Gold Class events yesterday, Jollity, a 13-year-old French trotter driven by Gozitan Julian Farrugia, led all the way for its second successive win at Marsa.

Marco Des Jacquots, another newcomer, was second and King Boy du Dane third.

A strong dash along the final straight enabled Swedish trotter Widget, controlled by Michael Ellul, to pass the post first in the other Gold race.

The next meeting at Marsa will be held on Sunday afternoon.

The winners

Race 1: Copper, Koehchel Baz (J. Magro).
Race 2: Copper, Real Minnesota (S. Schembri).
Race 3: Flat Class A heat 2, Nuage De La Tour (M. Mallia).
Race 4: Gold, Jollity (J. Farrugia).
Race 5: Bronze, Word Xing (R. Gatt).
Race 6: Gold, Widget (M. Ellul).
Race 7: Silver, Matador Knick (C. Farrugia).
Race 8: Premier, Le Bon Mayennais (C. Calleja).
Race 9: Flat Class A heat 3, Light Med (C. Pace).
Race 10: Silver, Stonecreek (E. Mallia).
Race 11: Bronze, Golf Oul Dada (N. Baldacchino).