Not only the showpiece of the spring, Sunday’s Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris is the most prestigious event on the French jumping calendar. Run over a gruelling 6000m, interspersed with 23 fences, each as varied and as difficult as the next, this year’s edition has attracted a relatively homogenous field, although certain names stand out more than others.

David Cottin’s Juntos Ganamos is the horse in the headlights. Winner of the G.2 Prix Congress on his chasing debut in 2022, he was unequivocally the leader of his generation at 3. After landing a pair of G.3’s last spring, he confirmed his status with G.1 Prix Ferdinand Dufaure victory 12 months ago. The autumn ended poorly however, when unseating his rider in the G.1 Prix Maurice Gillois.

Now 5, he is better than ever, winning the G.3 Prix Troytown by 7L on his seasonal bow before repeating in a hurdles conditioner a month later. Everything has gone to plan so far except that regular partner, Felix de Giles, is out with a knee injury and James Reveley, who has yet to ride the horse in public, will be onboard.

Juntos Ganamos’ principal threat is the Gabriel Leenders-trained Gold Tweet who has gone from strength to strength since debuting over fences at 3. Beaten 15L by the favourite on his Troytown comeback run, Gold Tweet has followed the same path as his adversary, successfully prepping over hurdles. 

After being the toast of Pau this winter, Youtwo Glass only missed out by little on a clean sweep when beaten 0.75L 2nd in the G.3 Grand Prix de Pau. He did, however, put many minds at ease when tenaciously winning the G.2 Prix Murat here early last month, and there’s still a lot of progress left in him.

Winner of last November’s G.1 Prix La Haye Jousselin, beating Grand Diose, Grand Oncle and La Manigance, Grandeur Nature made a victorious return to competition, over Compiègne hurdles, early last month, beating a horse who went on to win a Listed, and the unfortunate Sel Jem. Arnaud Chaillé-Chaillé’s 8yo must be considered a serious challenger for the spoils.

Secondary selections would include Gallipoli, who has finished runner-up in all 3 starts this year, and his stablemate, Général en Chef, provided the latter sees fit to actually start.

Amy du Kiff, Jojo Lapin, Imperil and In Love can expect to find this a stiff test, at least as far as winning is concerned, but the race is nevertheless set to be another hard-fought and passionate affair.