Nap hand to note on a weekend when Auteuil ought to rival Cheltenham for your attention

Good Morning Bloodstock is the Racing Post's daily morning email and presented online as a sample.

Here, Jacob Pritchard Webb takes the reins ahead of a tremendous couple of days at Auteuil featuring four Grade 1s – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

All you need do is click on the link above, sign up and then read at your leisure each weekday morning from 7am.

If you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or let it slip? 

I’m sure Eminem was not talking about the upcoming 48-hour de l’Obstacle meeting at Auteuil in his most famous rap, however it applies itself quite nicely in relation to the opportunity the runners and riders have this weekend in Paris. 

Bien venue to a French-themed edition of Good Morning Bloodstock today as I delve into five runners that I feel are worth noting ahead of France’s big National Hunt weekend.

There are only nine Grade 1s in France across the calendar year, and four of them are this weekend. Meaning four horses can write their name into the history books provided they put in a flawless round of jumping over the unique obstacles Auteuil supplies and can power home in front of the grandstand that lies in the shadow of the Eiffel tower.

Let’s start with the Prix Congress, a Grade 2 for three-year-olds over fences over 3,600m (two miles two furlongs). 

It’s a unique contest to watch and somewhat baffling to consider what these animals are doing compared to the three-year olds on our shore at the same time of their careers. 

They have been developed and handled in such a way since they were 18 months old to prepare them for a juvenile campaign that began in March/April time this year, first running over hurdles. 

When the programme book began to introduce three-year-old chases around July/August time, their trainers already saw that this would be the making of them. 

Jacob Pritchard Webb: today's Good Morning Bloodstock guest writerCredit: Alisha Meeder

One trainer in particular who has a knack for seeing this specific quality in his three-year-olds is Arnaud Chaille-Chaille, who trains in Royan on the western coast. 

He has won this race three times in the past four years, and that is why we start with his horse Hacker Du Berlais.

Hacker Du Berlais first took to the track in March this year at Fontainebleau, finishing fifth. With the winner Sony Bill scoring again since and now in training with Willie Mullins and the second, Djin’s, a Grade 3 winner subsequently, the form has worked out well so far. 

He has run a further seven times since and never been out of the money, except for a fall on his second start. He won a Class 2 contest at Le Lion d’Angers in May on his fifth start, but it wasn’t until a summer break and the switch to fences that saw him really improve. 

His most impressive win was his second over fences in a Listed contest at Auteuil, where he was impeccable and sauntered away to a ten-length victory over Botervia Du Kalon, with the market leader and big talking horse Lecoeurdeshommes a further seven lengths back in third.

This is no surprise when you delve into Hacker Du Berlais’ pedigree. By the leading sire Doctor Dino and out of the Saint Des Saints mare Hilton Du Berlais, who herself was a Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed, he is a half-brother to the Grade 1 winner Hawai Du Berlais, by Martaline. 

She herself was undefeated at three and also trained by Monsieur Chaille-Chaille, so he knows the family well. 

Hacker Du Berlais has the genes to be a champion and it would be no surprise to see him continue his trainer’s dominance of the race.

Kivala Du Berlais is related to the exciting Kalif Du Berlais (pictured) Credit: Alan Crowhurst

Continuing with the three-year-old theme, the first of the three Grade 1s on Sunday is the Prix Cambaceres. 

Another Du Berlais horse took my eye in this, and it wasn’t because of his commanding victory in the Grade 2 Prix Georges de Talhouet-Roy, the prep race for the Champion Hurdle for three-year-olds, but because he is related to a horse we have seen on our shores and was touted as being bought to be a future Gold Cup contender, namely Kalif Du Berlais, by Masked Marvel and who fell on his chasing debut at Carlisle on Monday.

Kivala Du Berlais is by the champion sire Saint Des Saints and out of Kadika (Poliglote), an unraced mare from the K family of Katgary (Ballingarry), Kotkiline (Martaline) and Kotkieglote (Poliglote), a Grade 3 winner for JP Gallorini. 

Kivala Du Berlais has never been out of the first three in his four starts, but was looking like a bridesmaid until putting some already high-achieving rivals to the sword at Auteuil last month, such as Sain D’Esprit (Cokoriko) and future stallion Nietzsche Has (Zarak).

He has the pedigree and ability to do what his half-brother didn’t do in his juvenile career and win this Grade 1, which looks a wide-open contest.

Moving up in age and onto the four-year-olds, who are now seen as seasoned pros in their domain, we come to the Prix Maurice Gillois. 

This is the second Grade 1 for four-year-olds, with the first being the Prix Ferdinand Dufaure in May, and both are over 4,400m (two miles six furlongs).

Unlike with the three-year-old chases, the route which they take as four-year-olds at Auteuil means they jump the gros open ditch down the back, the one next to the infamous rail ditch. 

Saint Des Saints: phenomenal sire is represented by Kaadam in the Prix Maurice GilloisCredit: Haras d'Etreham

For this contest, the horse I’ve settled on to look at is Kaadam, another trained by Arnaud Chaille-Chaille. 

He is by Saint Des Saints out of Fiestine (Martaline) and is the half-brother to Kashdam (Kapgarde), a Listed winner over fences at Auteuil. 

Fiestine herself was a Graded performer, winning a Listed chase at Enghien. 

Kaadam began his three-year-old career at Bordeaux Le Bouscat with a win, and ended the year, on his fifth start, by winning the Grade 2 Prix Congress. 

As a four-year-old, his spring campaign resulted in two below-par efforts, by his and his trainer’s standards especially; before the second of them, the Grade 1 Prix Ferdinand Dufaure, a 50 per cent share in him was purchased privately by UK-based owners Simon Macauley and Andrew Peake, who both use Highflyer Bloodstock in a management capacity.

However, their autumns are looking up, with two Grade 3 wins including last time out in the Prix Orcada, in which Kaadam beat a Grade 1 winner from the spring in Kolokico (Cokoriko) by 20 lengths. 

It was a dominant performance in a race that had been won by Juntos Ganamos and Diamond Carl in the previous two years, and who both contest the French King George later on the same card. 

Kaadam triumphing in this Grade 1 would, for his owners, keep the dream of French Gold Cup glory alive, and be a quick reminder of his sire’s dominance following his retirement last month. 

Johnny Charon and Losange Bleu after winning the Grande Course de Haies

When a horse reaches five years old in France, they are classed as an older animal. A stark contrast to those still running in bumpers and green as grass in the UK and Ireland, but that’s how the cultures and programme books differ. 

When a horse is five in France, they must race in open contests, with distances of the Grade 1 races increasing as well. 

Darting back to Saturday, the Prix Serge Landon-Grand Prix d’Automne is the autumn version of the French Champion Hurdle - which is 5,100m (three miles one furlong give or take) - but run over the slightly shorter trip of 4,800m (three miles).

In the past six years it has been won by just two horses: Galop Marin, by Black Sam Bellamy, who won four times on the bounce for Dominique Bressou from 2018, and Theleme (Sidestep) for the past two years for that man again Arnaud Chaille-Chaille. 

Neither of them will participate this year, and the new kid on the block and current French Champion Hurdle champion is Losange Bleu. 

Trained by Bressou, Losange Bleu is by Martaline and out of Sweet Valrose (Cadoudal). 

Sweet Valrose was no star on the track, having never won a race, but she has produced ten foals and seven have won, with six being black-type performers, including Losange Vert (Monmartre), a Listed winner over fences at Auteuil last May and a Grade 3 scorer two years earlier, and Losange Vert Bleu (Night Wish), who has finished in the money in his last four Graded starts at Auteuil. 

Losange Bleu, though, is head and shoulders above the rest of the brood having won more than €850,000 in prize-money and ten of his 15 races - and he’s still only five. 

Auteuil: hosts a number of Grade 1s this weekendCredit: Scoop Dyga/France Galop

He missed the autumn Grade 1 as a three-year-old and was beaten by Gala Marceau in the spring four-year-old Grade 1 hurdle, but has gone on to win his last two Grade 1 contests, including the Champion Hurdle this year in May when beating none other than Hewick into second. 

Losange Bleu looks to have the size and scope to be a chaser and dominate his opposition by making it an end-to-end galop from the front. Everything about him suggests he should go chasing but, when you’re the best in your division, why change?

The best spectacle of the weekend, and for me the French jumps race of the year on paper at least, is the Prix la Haye Jousselin on Sunday. 

Always described to me as the French King George, it’s the second and final Grade 1 for five-year-olds and up run over fences. 

Run over 5,500m (three miles three furlongs and a bit), they do two full circuits of Auteuil, including jumping the famous rail ditch and fence down the back. 

There are four Grade 1 winners in the race, including the two young guns and talking horses, Il Est Francais and Juntos Ganamos, and we can’t forget last year’s winner Grandeur Nature, but the horse in focus for me is Gran Diose. 

He won the French Gold Cup this year, beating Grandeur Nature by a neck and getting his revenge on that rival after finishing second to him in this race last year. 

The eight-year-old is by Planteur and out of Noanoa, by Walk In The Park, and will be seen as an elderly statesman in this race, but he has been nurtured by Louisa Carberry due to his 18-hand frame and didn’t make his Grade 1 debut until this race last year.

Planteur's son Gran Diose is another to watch

However, he has always been held in the highest regard by his trainer - and she knows a good one having had former champion Docteur De Ballon (Doctor Dino). 

Gran Diose is from the first crop of Planteur when he was stationed in France, and he was bred in the same field as Trueshan. Noanoa was a winner at Auteuil on two occasions, but her offspring have achieved far above what she did, with Gran Diose’s half-sister Canichette (Prince Gibraltar) winning a Grade 3 at Compiegne on her final completed start before heading to the breeding shed.

This Sunday will be Gran Diose’s greatest test. While a slightly forgotten horse, he has all the credentials to be the most feared in my opinion. 

A Gold Cup winner who acts on any ground, trained by a Carberry, and with the incentive of having something to prove having been pipped in the race last year, if anything does beat him, they’ll have to really earn it. 

One thing is certain, though, for all five horses identified as worth noting this weekend, if they want to crown themselves in glory, they will have to be not afraid.

Jacob Pritchard Webb is a former French-based jump jockey whose roles include UK and Irish representative for Auctav, Sky Sports pundit, bloodstock agent, and journalist

Refer a friend!

If you have a friend who would like to receive Good Morning Bloodstock please send the following link where they can sign up.

What do you think?

Share your thoughts with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com

Must-read story

“Lope De Vega continues to prove himself as a global sire sensation,” says John O’Connor as Ballylinch Stud reveals he will stand for a career-high €175,000 as 2025 fees are published.

Pedigree pick

Tony Joe has plenty to live up to given the exploits of older close relation Ahoy Senor, but the Westerner gelding looks an exciting prospect for Fergal O'Brien. 

Debuting in the bumper at Southwell on Friday (2.08), the four-year-old is out of the point-winning Darazari mare Dara Supreme, her name made famous through Ahoy Senor. 

That Dylan Thomas gelding won the Grade 1 Sefton Novices' Hurdle at Aintree in 2021 and has since proved top-class over fences, landing the Grade 1 Mildmay Novices' Chase the following year before striking in the Grade 2 Cotswold Chase and placing second to Shiskin in the Grade 1 Aintree Bowl Chase. He repeated that feat when second again in the Aintree Bowl in the spring. 

Don’t miss ANZ Bloodstock News

Subscribe for the latest bloodstock news from Australia, New Zealand and beyond.

Good Morning Bloodstock is our unmissable email newsletter. Leading bloodstock journalist Martin Stevens provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday.