THE history of the Grade 1 Prix La Haye Jousselin, the second biggest steeplechase on the French calendar, is littered with multiple winners.

At Auteuil last Sunday, Bipolaire emulated the recently-retired Milord Thomas in becoming a three-time hero of this near three-and-a-half-mile stamina test – though he still has some way to go to emulate Al Capone II, who won it on an incredible seven occasions at the end of the last century.

In completing the hat-trick this grey son of Fragrant Mix registered a 12th Haye Jousselin victory for breeder Jacques Cyprès, who also bred Al Capone II and, for good measure, is the owner-breeder of Sunday’s five-and-a-half-length runner-up, Ebonite.

Bipolaire also took revenge on Carriacou, who beat him into second place in the season’s one and only more prestigious prize, the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.

Ridden with a surgeon’s precision by Davy Russell, Carriacou was brought through from the rear to hit the front approaching the second last, where he still travelled smoothly. However, he went from cruising to losing in a matter of strides and had to settle for third place, over 17 lengths behind the winner. “This testing ground may have caught him out,” Russell reported.

Halfway up the run-in Bipolaire still had a fight on his hands against Ebonite, the pair taking the unusual course – for this venue – of sticking to the inside rail, but Gaetan Masure’s mount was well on top at the line. This €234,000 first prize took his career earnings beyond the €1.5 million mark and he looks sure to have a number of opportunities to increase that tally as he has yet to reach his ninth birthday.

Based on the Atlantic coast near Royan Le Palmyre, winning trainer François Nicolle is now assured of his second French Trainers Championship having deposed his near-neighbour, Guillaume Macaire, 12 months earlier.

In truth, the championship had been secured 40 minutes earlier when Nicolle’s Figuero, representing exactly the same owner/breeder combination as Bipolaire of Jacques Détré and Cyprès, ran clear from his eight rivals in the four-year-old championship chase, the €320,000 Grade 1 Prix Maurice Gillois.

Two and three-quarter miles is a long way for such callow youths to cover in deep ground, and that’s without taking into account the effort required to cross Auteuil’s formidable fences. So it was no great surprise that, while four horses were in close contention jumping the third last, three furlongs later Figuero was the only member of the quartet still capable of raising a gallop.

“Figuero is by Yeats and they love this ground,” Nicolle explained. “He jumped perfectly, he didn’t make the semblance of a mistake and you really pay for even the slightest error on ground like this. I don’t normally like running five-year-olds in the Grand Steep’ but I might make an exception for this fellow, he just never stops improving.”

SUNDAY’S other Grade 1, the Prix Cambaceres, a two-and-a-quarter-mile hurdle for three-year-olds, proved that prep races are just that – preparatory. The first four from the Grade 2 Prix Georges de Talhouet-Roy over the same course and distance three weeks earlier again filled the first four places, but in exactly the reverse order.

This time Sangennaro was scruffy over the first and was not allowed an uncontested lead, contributory factors along with the bad ground to explain his disappointing fourth place. The one to take full advantage was the Martaline colt Nirvana Du Berlais who finished strongly to score by 14 lengths and give victory to a third Royan-based handler, Arnaud Chaillé-Chaillé.

Bottomless

Just like 24 hours later, Saturday’s main feature saw a repeat of 2018 as Galop Marin demonstrated his bottomless stamina to lift his second Grade 1 Grand Prix d’Automne over three miles, the autumn season’s top staying hurdle.

Trained by Dominique Bressou and ridden by Morgan Regairaz, this Irish-bred Black Sam Bellamy gelding thus took his lifetime prize money hoard through the €1 million barrier – not a bad return on the €13,000 he cost at Tattersalls Ireland as a foal!

But it was an extremely frustrating afternoon for Co Carlow trainer Emmet Mullins as his three-year-old filly, Fujimoto Flyer, recently sold to owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, refused to race when hot favourite for the €165,000 Haras d’Etreham Prix Bournosienne.

The fact that Macaire’s Want Of A Nail, easily beaten by Fujimoto Flyer when the pair met over this track and trip back in September, went on to win the two-and-a-quarter-mile Grade 2 contest only rubbed salt into Mulins’s wounds.