Prix Serge Landon - Grand Prix d’Automne (Hurdle) (Grade 1)
Prix Cambaceres - Grande Course de Haies des 3 ans (Grade 1)
Prix Maurice Gillois Grand Steeple-Chase des 4 ans (Grade 1)
Prix Renaud du Vivier - Grande Course de Haies des 4 ans (Grade 1)
Prix la Haye Jousselin (Grade 1)
FRANCE’S winter jumping season came to a crescendo at Auteuil last weekend with five Grade 1 races and two more at Grade 2 level on the menu.
Co Waterford vet Walter Connors, the famed pinhooker and trader who raced both Don Cossack and Espoir d’Allen at the start of their careers before selling them on, looks like he is committed to ownership for the long haul as far as Sunday’s Prix Maurice Gillois hero Leader Sport, who he shares with trainer Daniela Mele, is concerned.
Shaking with excitement after his charge had landed a four-length victory in this Grade 1 two miles and six furlongs event for four-year-old chasers, Connors exclaimed: “I never thought I would say these words but, after a lifetime of selling horses, money isn’t everything!
“This is an enormous thrill and I’m beginning to understand why people want to own a racehorse. He could be a [Cheltenham] Gold Cup horse. If he has some luck going forward, anything is possible.”
Haras du Berlais, which is run by Jean-Marc Lucas in the Charente region of west central France, notched a monumental Grade 1 breeding double thanks to Toscana Du Berlais and the David Cottin-trained Leopard Du Berlais, who was the day’s most impressive winner in landing the Prix Cambaceres, a two miles, two furlongs three-year-old hurdle, to make it a perfect three-from-three to start his career.
The Anglo-Swedish training combination of Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm were responsible for Sunday’s other Grade 1 victor, It’s Win O’Clock, who edged out his fellow joint-favourite, Sain d’Esprit to take the autumn season’s biggest four-year-old hurdling prize.
George and Zetterholm also enjoyed a Saturday double topped by the Grade 2 Prix Congress triumph of their brilliant three-year-old chaser, Nador.
But the undoubted star of a rain-soaked Saturday was Dominique Bressou’s Losange Bleu, who retained his three-mile Grand Prix d’Automne title as he annexed the fourth hurdling Grade 1 of his career.
Amateur rider
Zetterholm’s fellow countryman Elliot Ohgren, who has worked for Willie Mullins for the past five years, got one over the boss’s son, Patrick, when landing Saturday’s big amateur riders’ chase, the two miles and six furlongs Prix de France, aboard Quel Bonbon.
Having put to rest his agonisingly narrow defeat in the Prix Marechal Foch at Auteuil in May to get off the mark, Ohgren now has one more French success to his name than Mullins junior.
THE solitary foreign runner of the weekend, Joseph O’Brien’s three-year-old Dignam, won almost as much for finishing fifth in the Prix Cambaceres as he had in taking his previous three hurdles in England, but there was plenty of Irish and British representation amongst the successful connections in some of the big races.
France Galop deserves credit for its promotion of this ’48 Hours Of Jumping’ Festival, pinning general admission at just €5, and was rewarded with a two-day crowd of 13,720 despite dismal Saturday weather.
Various free family-friendly, winter sports-based activities were available, including tobogganing, climbing and cross-country skiing, and betting turnover was up by 15% on 2024.
The crowd was treated to an action-packed final circuit of Sunday’s showpiece chase, the €540,000 Grade 1 Prix La Haye Jousselin over three miles, three furlongs and 110 yards, with the fortunes of the principals fluctuating wildly.
Kolokico, the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris runner-up, slipped through on the inside to establish a clear lead moving away from the stands. But a three-length advantage turned into a five-length deficit after a shuddering error at the fifth last, the fearsome ‘Rail, Ditch And Fence’. He hit it halfway up and skewed badly left, jockey James Reveley performing miracles to keep the partnership intact - two other riders were ejected by similar howlers at the same obstacle.
Back in front
Remarkably, Kolokico was soon back in front. Then, after he had survived a juddering stumble rounding the final turn and Kaadam had crashed out when alongside him two from home, he was headed by the smooth-travelling Gold Tweet at the last of the 22 fences.
Gold Tweet curled up on the run-in to be passed first by Toscana Du Berlais and then by the rallying Kolokico, who showed guts aplenty to regain second.
Trained, like Kaadam, by Arnaud Chaille-Chaille and Francois Pamart, the six-length winner Toscana Du Berlais was a 13.4/1 outsider and arrived on a 12-race losing streak, which included a fourth place in the Grand Steep, when he had finished 14 lengths adrift of Kolokico.
The unfortunate Kolokico, who is part-owned by the former top English amateur rider Lord Daresbury, could now have a crack at the King George at Kempton on St Stephen’s Day, though it remains to be seen how quickly he recovers from this gruelling affair.
Daresbury at least had the consolation of having earlier seen his silks carried to victory by Jolimay, trained by Louisa and Philip Carberry, in a valuable two miles and six furlongs chase, in which less than half the field completed the course.