It’s restricted to four-year-olds that have never run over hurdles or fences and often goes to a subsequent Grade 1 winner, most memorably Sir Des Champs.

This year’s renewal looked as strong as ever but the final time was not as good as it could have been because the runners went rather too fast from the second to the sixth jump and this caused them to tire, leading to half the field of 12 pulling up.

The horse that won the slog up the home straight in a prolonged three-way battle was Aux Ptits Soins (33-pace adjusted 37). The searching pace and heavy ground clearly suited this tall, three mile chasing sort as it placed the emphasis on stamina which he seems to have in abundance. This is hardly surprising as he’s a three-parts brother to Quel Esprit also by Saint Des Saints.

I’d say the best horse in the race was the runner up Adagio Conti (33-pace adjusted 37). This full-brother to Silviniaco Conti is a pacier, more athletic sort than the winner and twice showed real tactical speed to make up ground.

It looked to me that Adagio Conti’s rider was actually a little too confident as he sneaked a look back at his rivals running up to the last.. This explains why he didn’t have time to ask his mount to jump at the right time, leading to him dragging his back legs through the last. He lost the lead and rallied but couldn’t quite catch back up to the winner.

I can see Adagio Conti doing well in two and a half mile hurdles just like Silviniaco Conti, before going chasing. He looks a bit bigger than his brother too, so he probably won’t have the same need to race prominently to avoid being crowded into jumping errors over fences.

Third-placed Arbre De Vie (33-pace adjusted 37) doesn’t have as glamorous a pedigree as the first two but stuck with them all the way up the straight as the trio quickly opened up a huge gap on their rivals. He’s built and bred to be a two and a half or three mile chaser.

Seeing the prices the big British and Irish owners are prepared to pay for French jumpers, it’s pretty sure we’ll be seeing these horses running here next season.