Prix La Haye Jousselin (Grade 1)

THE curtain came down on the French jump racing season at Auteuil last Sunday with thrilling finishes to both of the last two Grade 1 events of the campaign, each resulting in victories tinged with Irish involvement.

The Gaelic flavour was strongest in the showpiece Prix La Haye Jousselin as Docteur De Ballon conjured a remarkable burst of speed at the end of a gruelling contest to pull the €162,000 first prize out of the fire. The winner is trained in north west France by Louisa Carberry, the British-born wife of Philip Caberry, he of the famed Co Meath jockey family.

This three-mile, three-and-a-half-furlong chase was a rematch (over two and a half furlongs less of the same course) of October 18th’s Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris and the same horses filled the first three places, with Feu Follet and Figuero swapping around to finish second and third.

But, on stamina-sapping ground officially rated ‘holding’, this was altogether different to the Grand Steep’ as the gallant Cobra De Larre, who ended up holding on for an admirable fifth place, set a fierce pace. The leader was still clear when making a catastrophic error at the third last, by which time Docteur De Ballon had himself made a few slight mistakes, most significantly at the railed ditch on both circuits.

Already off the bridle when Feu Follet moved smoothly to the front on the final turn, Docteur De Ballon looked in real trouble in a hard-ridden third after the last, only to get up in the last 50 yards to prevail by a length and a half, with Figuero a neck further adrift and 11 lengths back to fourth-placed Bebe d’Or.

Worried

Winning jockey Bertrand Lestrade admitted: “I was worried right from the start. I was constantly on the edge of having to ask him too much, it was really awkward. Louisa was concerned that the ground would blunt his finishing kick and I kept having to tell myself ‘believe in him, Bertrand’.

“And what a turn of foot he produced! To pick up a horse like Feu Follet having given him a 10-length start, you have to be a champion.”

Fourteen years on from completing the same double of France’s top two chases as a rider aboard Princesse d’Anjou, Philip Carberry again stayed at the yard in Senonnes to watch the race on television.

He said: “I knew that the sticky ground would make it harder than the Grand Steep’. Bertrand rode a perfect race, keeping plenty up his sleeve for the finish.

“Within 48 hours of the Grand Steep’ he was letting us know that he was still 100% – he recovered very fast. I have ridden him most mornings since and I schooled him on Tuesday and Friday, which isn’t something we do often but he loves it and it lets him know that a race is coming.

“He adores his big paddock here, where he loves to have a roll and play around every morning, and he’s a dream horse. He just loves life.”

Marin gallops to three in a row

Grand Prix d’Automne (Hurdle) (Grade 1)

THE other Grade 1, the three-mile Grand Prix d’Automne (Hurdle), also saw a reshuffling of the first three from six weeks earlier (from the three-mile, one-and-a-half-furlong Grande Course de Haies) but this time in even more dramatic fashion.

Galop Marin, beaten almost 11 lengths into third in the Grande Course and not in the first two in any of his six hurdles starts since landing this race for a second time last November, was equipped with cheekpieces for the first time.

Under an aggressive front-running ride from Morgan Regairaz, the Dominique Bressou-trained eight-year-old got the better of a lung-bursting final-furlong duel with Paul’s Saga to score by half a length and become only the second horse to win three Grand Prix d’Automnes.

The runner-up had himself been the beneficiary of the application of sheepskin headgear when landing the Grande Course. The long odds-on favourite, L’Autonomie, was only third and once more gave the impression that she could be something special if only she could be taught to jump straight and race more conservatively.

The winner, a son of Black Sam Bellamy, was bred near Thurles by Mark Molloy and Mark Fleming and his half-brother, a colt foal by Walk In The Park, will be going under the hammer at Tattersalls Ireland on December 14th.