3.25 Racing TV Grande Course De Haies d’Auteuil (Grade 1)
3m 1f 110yd
Having failed to make the top three in four starts in 2025, in the process looking as if he might have lost his enthusiasm for racing, 2026 has witnessed an astonishing turnaround for Joseph O’Brien’s 11-year-old Home By The Lee with his 33/1 victory in the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, sandwiched between surprise wins at Gowran Park and Aintree.
If the gelded son of Fame And Glory were to complete a four-timer in Saturday’s Grade 1 Racing TV Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil, it would arguably be more of a shock than anything he has achieved during his storied career.
The size of his task is substantial, mainly because the 11-runner field features both Losange Bleu, who is trying to regain his crown after an unexpected reverse when second in this race 12 months ago, and Theleme, who may have missed the entirety of the 2024 and 2025 seasons but has showed in two recent starts that he retains at least some of the talent that has enabled him to collect no less than five Grade 1 prizes, including the 2023 renewal of this race.
Losange Bleu had Theleme eight lengths back in third when winning a Grade 2 here last month and even this big jump in trip is unlikely to allow Theleme to turn the tables, given that he is now 9lb worse off at the weights.
There are also two British challengers in the shape of the Paul Nicholls-trained handicapper Henri The Second and Lucinda Russell’s mare Apple Away, who was a Grade 1 novice hurdle victrix in her youth but missed most of the 2025/2026 season after having a couple of screws inserted in a cannon bone last autumn
SELECTION: LOSANGE BLEU
Next Best: Theleme
14.15 Grade 1 Prix Alain du Breil 2m 3f 110yd
On Sunday’s undercard, Willie Mullins saddles Selma de Vary in the nine-runner €258,000 Grade 1 Prix Alain du Breil.
The master of Closutton has won this four-year-old hurdle on three previous occasions and, given that Selma de Vary is the only one of his 17 original Auteuil entries this weekend to be making the long journey, she surely won’t be making the trip simply to take pictures of the Eiffel Tower.
Beaten by less than five lengths in other top-level contests at Leopardstown, Cheltenham and Aintree, she should relish this step up in distance.
Elisabeth Allaire’s Delmegan, the only other filly in the field who beat five of these rivals in a course and distance Grade 2 four weeks ago, looks like her biggest danger.
SELECTION: SELMA DE VARY
Next Best: Delmegan
3.05 Grade 1 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris
3m 6f
A 14-runner line-up for the Grade 1 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris lacks any overseas involvement, though Gabriel Leenders’s Cheltenham Gold Cup seventh, Gold Tweet, who has since won an Auteuil Grade 2, does take part.
This marathon may see last year’s runner-up, Kolokico, go one better for trainer Emmanuel Clayeux and owner Lord Daresbury, though he will need to jump better than when second to the reopposing Toscana du Berlais in the Grade 1 Prix La Haye Jousselin in November.
The five-year-old Kivala du Berlais, who was making his chasing debut when beating Kolokico in the Grade 2 Prix Murat over two miles and siz furlongs in March, is an intriguing contestant but may be found out by his lack of both stamina and experience.
SELECTION: KOLOKICO
Next Best: Kivala du Berlais