AUTEUIL SATURDAY

4.00 GRANDE COURSE DE HAIES D’AUTEUIL (GRADE 1) (5YO+) of €350,000. 3M 1F 110Y.

Willie Mullins has invigorated the Grand Steep’ weekend in Paris by declaring no less than 10 horses in its two feature contests.

It starts with today’s 12-runner Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil, a race that has played a highly significant role in Mullins family history as the immortal Dawn Run won it in 1984, trained by Willie’s father, Paddy, and ridden by his brother, Tony, before suffering a fatal fall when defending her crown a year later.

Willie has himself won it four times, though not since 2012. He has five runners this time, headed by Benie Des Dieux. The other four are, in all probability, only in line for a share of the generous place prize money.

Of this quartet, both the English Champion Hurdle runner-up, Melon (Robbie Power), and Mr Adjudicator (James Reveley) are making a radical step up in trip, which could bring out marked improvement. Mr Adjudicator was only a handicap winner at Punchestown, so Melon is the clear pick of that pair.

The other two Closutton lesser lights are Bapaume (Rachael Blackmore) and Yorkhill (Danny Mullins), a distant second and sixth in this event in 2018 and again set to finish in that order.

The ace in the Mullins pack is undoubtedly Benie Des Dieux (Paul Townend) who would be unbeaten in seven starts for her current handler but for a last-flight tumble at Cheltenham with the mares’ hurdle at her mercy.

She showed that she was none the worse for that experience with an easy win in the corresponding race at Punchestown, and her Cheltenham form was boosted when the lucky winner, Roksana, was only touched off at Aintree.

Benie Des Dieux will be one of the freshest in the field, with just two runs in the last 12 months.

If this was an average renewal she would be very hard to beat but her opponents include another outstanding female in the shape of De Bon Coeur. Francis Nicolle’s charge is taken to come out on top in a mouth-watering Franco-Irish ‘Clash Of The Supermares’.

De Bon Coeur has tasted defeat just once in 14 completed career starts and could not have been more impressive when winning this by a whopping 16 lengths a year ago.

SELECTION: DE BON COEUR

Next Best: Benie Des Dieux

AUTEUIL SUNDAY

3.35 ZETURF GRAND STEEPLE-CHASE DE PARIS (GRADE 1) (5YO+) of €820,000. 3M 6F.

Two months ago Willie Mullins finally filled one of the few gaps in his stellar CV when Al Boum Photo landed the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Now he runs five in his quest for a first Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris at Auteuil tomorrow.

What are his chances of success? To be brutally honest, not great.

Unlike in that Cheltenham showpiece, where he had saddled the runner-up on no less than six occasions prior to March’s triumph, he has no history of near misses in this three and three-quarter mile stamina test.

Indeed, none of his four previous runners has finished in the first six and, more worryingly still, despite countless big wins in Auteuil hurdle races, he has yet to saddle a single chase winner at the Mecca of French jump racing.

Whereas Auteuil’s hurdles are all the same, somewhere between Irish hurdles and fences in size and shape, the Grand Steep’ course has a huge variety of obstacles, many of them unique, including a bullfinch, a very wide water jump and a massive open ditch.

The best way to get good at jumping them is practice, hence the home team holds a big advantage in this race – there has been no foreign winner since Mandarin’s legendary success despite a broken bit in 1962 and no Irish challenger has even gone close since Captain Christy was second in 1975.

The pick of Mullins’s five runners is Burrows Saint (Townend), last time out winner of the Irish Grand National. He seemed to relish the step up to a marathon trip that day but is very inexperienced over fences and though he has jumped round Auteuil, that was in 2016 and the course for three-year-old chases is much less severe than the one he will face on Sunday.

The 11-year-old Rathvinden (Blackmore) is much more battle-hardened, with 14 chases under his belt. He reaffirmed his class when carrying a big weight into third in the Aintree Grand National, but these jumps may come as a shock to him.

Total Recall (Danny Mullins) is winless in his last six starts and dropped away tamely having made the running in the Irish National while Pleasant Company (Power) is on an even longer losing streak but would have again been bang there at the finish in the Aintree National but for unseating four out.

So, of the Mullins team, maybe Acapella Bourgeois (Johnny Burke), 6lb better off for the seven lengths Burrows Saint beat him last time, may represent the best each-way value.

Deciphering the form of the traditional French prep races is tricky. Docteur De Ballon, trained in the French provinces by former top Irish jockey Philip Carberry and his wife Louisa, had things go all his own way in the Prix Ingre yet still only had a short neck in hand of Dalia Grandchamp.

Bipolaire has the highest official rating but was was only fifth in this in 2017 and finished well behind Crystal Beach on his latest start, while Davy Russell has picked up a good spare ride aboard Carriacou, third in this race two years ago.

SELECTION: DALIA GRANDCHAMP

Next Best: Bipolaire

Also on Sunday, the four-year-old French Made attempts to give Mullins his third win in the last seven runnings of the Grade 1 Prix Alain du Breil (2m 3f 110y hurdle) while Guillaume Macaire’s Goliath Du Berlais should continue his winning spree in the big four-year- old chase, the Grade 1 Prix Ferdinand Dufaure (2m 6f).