PRIX FERDINAND

DUFAURE (CHASE)

(GRADE 1)

AUTEUIL’S third Grade 1 Sunday contest, the Prix Ferdinand Dufaure, a two and three-quarter-mile four-year-old chase, witnessed a wide-margin victory for the long odds-on favourite, Whetstone.

But anyone who backed the Guillaume Macaire-trained son of Saint Des Saints at 1/5 would have got the collywobbles twice on the final circuit, including at the last fence, when serious jumping errors put his unbeaten record over fences in jeopardy.

His triumph was the second leg of a potential treble for his dam, Westonne, as his half-brother, the 11-time graded hurdle-winning Device, got off the mark over fences when beating the Willie Mullins-trained Polidam into fourth in the opening Prix Marechal Foch.

Unfortunately, another Westonne progeny, So French, was denied his chance of a third consecutive Grand Steep win when he was brought down at the first fence.

UNDERDOG

THE weekend got off to a terrible start for Willie Mullins when his Leopardstown Grade 1 winner Mr Adjudicator, runner-up in the four-year-old championship hurdles at both the Cheltenham and Punchestown Festivals, was not allowed to take part in the €250,000 Prix Alain du Breil owing to a passport irregularity.

In his absence, his stable companions Msassa and Saglawy, just behind him in that Punchestown event, both pulled hard and consequently didn’t get home, finishing 17 lengths and more behind the winner in sixth and ninth.

The race resulted in a heart-warming underdog success for Wildriver, one of just 10 horses in the Lyon yard of 32-year-old Mathieu Pitart, who has had a training licence for barely six months.

Most observers felt that when Wildriver beat Tunis and Master Dino, the top two four-year-old hurdlers from the powerhouse Guillaume Macaire yard, into second and third in the Grade 3 Prix de Pepinvast at Auteuil in early April, it was simply because he had been allowed too much rope in front.

Yet here the one-two-three was exactly the same, and there can be no suggestion of a fluke result as Wildriver, clearly transformed by hurdling after four defeats during a brief flat career, was held up off the pace and only hit the front with five to jump.

Young French jumpers

THE results of Sunday’s two biggest Auteuil events underline how differently young jumpers are campaigned in France compared to Britain and Ireland.

The Grand Steep was won by a five-year-old for the fourth time in the last 10 years, with another from the same generation in third, while the same age group filled the first three places in the Grande Course de Haies. The comparison with the 2016 King George hero, Thistlecrack, for example, who didn’t see a hurdle let alone a fence until the age of seven, could not be more stark.

YOUTH

The whole programme in France is skewed towards youth, while Irish and British trainers would rarely countenance throwing a five-year-old into the deep end over extreme distance beyond three miles.

Newmarket export Bateel wins

ON the flat, Bateel made it four wins and two second places in six starts since leaving the Newmarket yard of David Simcock and joining Chantilly trainer François-Henri Graffard with a smooth reappearance victory in the Group 2 Prix Corrida at Saint-Cloud on Monday.

The six-year-old daughter of Dubawi was a length and a quarter too strong for the race-fit runner-up, Bebe D’Amour, despite giving her 7lbs.

Already a Group 1 scorer in last year’s Prix Vermeille, she will next defend her Group 2 Prix de Pomone crown and a tilt at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe itself is also in the pipeline.

PESLIER HAPPY

Jockey Olivier Peslier, who is always a smiley sort of chap, sported a broad grin after guiding Castellar to victory in Saint-Cloud’s other pattern contest, the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre.

Not only is Castellar a half-sister to Peslier’s recent Group 2 Prix du Muguet winner Recoletos, but the filly that she beat, Luminate, was ridden by Peslier to land the Group 3 Prix Penelope over the same course and distance three weeks ago.

Peslier’s replacement aboard Luminate, Aurelien Lemaitre, was subsequently banned for dangerous riding and his mount placed fifth after she had barged her way out of tight quarters inside the final furlong.

Castellar and Luminate will meet again in the Group 1 Prix de Diane on June 17th.