Auteuil Notepad - 17th September

I thought that we would be talking about an exciting 3-year-old in the Papot silks from this Thursday’s card at Auteuil and we are, but I had no idea that we would be discussing 2 of them. I will come to Huron Bleu in a moment, but first I should give some time to LUNE BLEUE, who was an incredibly impressive winner of the G3 Prix de Chambly under Gabin Meunier. Having been pitched into a G3 contest on her debut, it was clear that Lune Bleue had been showing plenty of ability to the Bressou team, but this was still a highly impressive performance from this daughter of Doctor Dino. The sudden change in the weather conditions may well have exposed the limitations in some of these fillies who had been enjoying a decent time of things on the better Summer ground. That’s especially true for the beaten favourite Nuit Torride, whose winning run came to an end in the more testing conditions, but it probably wouldn’t have been enough to beat Lune Bleue anyway. Raffles Jet set a fair pace under Bryony Le Clerc, but once she stumbled and unseated over the 3rd last, Lune Bleue took up the running and pulled clear with ease. She appears to be a big filly and clearly handled the softer conditions, but she also appeared to quicken when asked to go and win her race between the final 2 flights and a winning margin of 20 lengths was a very fair reflection of just how dominant she was.

Lune Bleue is a Papot homebred whose dam won her first 2 starts over hurdles in 2013 (Jeune Lune). This family has produced several stakes level performers, but having won a G3 on her first start, there is surely a decent chance that Lune Bleue is the best of them.

The reason for clearing the work schedule on Thursday morning was to have the time to watch HURON BLEU and he didn’t disappoint. He is the best 3-year-old hurdler in France and confirmed all of the promise that he showed in the Spring by dominating the G3 Prix Robert Lejeune from the moment the flag fell. He beat the previously unbeaten Navy du Seuil by 17 lengths and I don’t think Mickael Seror’s charge did anything wrong. He simply isn’t in the same class. There are still plenty of 3-year-old hurdlers to be run at Auteuil and elsewhere this year, but it seems highly unlikely that anything will emerge to match the level of form that Huron Bleu has shown and he should win the G1 Prix Cambaceres in November if he stays sound.

It wasn’t a perfect day for the Papot team as Losange Bleu could only finish 3rd in the Prix de Compiegne. However, he has been beaten in this race in each of the last 3 seasons now and with the G1 in November the main aim for the Autumn, I won’t be reading too much into his defeat. However, the earlier form shown by the 2 Juvenile hurdlers meant that the day belonged to Ecurie Mme Patrick Papot and with so many of the 3-year-olds being sold again this year, they do look to have the French 3-year-old hurdling division in the palms of their hands at this stage.