Desmond Stoneham

THIS weekend’s two-day ‘48 Hours Of Jump Racing’ Festival at Auteuil in Paris is a massive deal for French steeplechasing enthusiasts.

Yet, internationally-speaking, this meeting struggles to make any impact on a global racing weekend featuring the JNwine.com Champion Chase and the bet365 Charlie Hall Chase on opposite sides of the Irish Sea, not to mention the small matter of two of the world’s biggest flat fixtures – the Breeders Cup’ in America and the Victoria Derby in Australia.

Formerly marketed as the ‘International Jump Weekend’, the meeting has long struggled to attract runners from Britain and Ireland. This year the solitary overseas raider is Agrapart, trained in England by Nick Williams and ridden by his stepdaughter, Lizzie Kelly, in today’s €370,000 Grand Prix d’Automne, a three-mile Grade 1 hurdle.

This is the one race where international visitors have made an impact with three consecutive victories culiminating in the success of Willie Mullins’s Thousand Stars in 2015. But Agrapart will surely only be a bit-part player this year as Device bids to confirm a recent verdict over the 2016 winner, Alex De Larreyda.

FOREIGN COMPETITION

In the absence of foreign competition, the theme of the weekend is set to be the continued dominance of trainers Guillaume Macaire, François Nicolle and Arnaud Chaille-Chaille, who all operate within a stone’s throw of each other at La Palmyre, on the Atlantic coast and some 300 miles south west of Auteuil.

This trio have already won more than 480 jumps races this year and between them they are set to plunder the majority of the €2,533,000 in prizemoney on offer over the weekend – beginning with the Grand Prix d’Automne as Macaire trains Device and Nicolle is responsible for Alex De Larreyda.

The centrepiece of the two days is tomorrow’s €550,000 Prix La Haye Jousselin, a near three and a half-mile Grade 1 chase which has been won for the last three years by Milord Thomas. But this son of Kapgarde has run only once since his 2016 triumph, and that outing was a third place over hurdles at Compiegne just a week ago.

Given such a troubled preparation, a fourth straight victory is unlikely with Chaille-Chaille’s Perfect Impulse looking the most potent pretender to his crown.

Tomorrow, Macaire can land both the Grade 1 four-year-old chase, the Prix Maurice Gillois, with Edward d’Argent, owned by Simon Munir & Isaac Souede, and the Grade 1 three-year-old hurdle, the Prix Cambaceres, with Master Dino.

Macaire has more big chances in some of Saturday’s feature races. The impeccably-bred three-year-old filly, Whetstone, looks unbeatable in the Grade 3 Prix Bournosienne, while Piton Des Neiges may get the better of his old rival, Echiquier Royal, to give Macaire five wins in a row in the Grade 2 three-year-old chase, the Prix Congress.

SELECTIONS

AUTEUIL SATURDAY

2.45pm Grand Prix d’Automne (Grade 1)

SELECTION: Device

AUTEUIL SUNDAY

1.00pm Prix Cambaceres (Grade 1 Hurdle)

SELECTION: Master Dino

1.35pm Prix Maurice Gillois (Grade 1 Chase

SELECTION: Edward d’Argent

2.50pm Prix La Haye Jousselin (Grade 1)

SELECTION: Perfect Impulse