De Bon Coeur does enough and no more in Grande Course rehearsal at Auteuil

Prix Leon Rambaud (Grade 2 Hurdle) 5yo+ | 2m5½f

Last season she put 15 lengths between herself and a talented crop of British and Irish challengers in the Grande Course de Haies, but those watching in from abroad to discover whether De Bon Coeur is in the same form this year will have gleaned precious few clues from her final trial appearance at Auteuil on Sunday.

With all but Galop Marin rated at least 35lb her inferior, De Bon Coeur was expected to stroll to success but, after her only serious rival had set a sedate pace, Kevin Nabet nursed the strapping daughter of Vision D'Etat to a two-length success over Berjou.

Afterwards trainer Francois Nicolle was open in his hopes that another high-quality challenge arrives at Auteuil from abroad on May 18, given that a more sustained rhythm over the longer distance of the Grande Course is likely to see his champion in a better light.

"She was perhaps a little underdone, a little careless and she obviously has work to do ahead of the Grande Course," said Nicolle. "You can look at her with love in your eyes every morning but we need to get the work into her now.

"I expected her to win more easily than that but she just did enough and two metres after the line she stopped to a walk. But that's great, maybe it will encourage a few more to come over and take her on."

Nicolle and his staff have worked hard to channel the more tearaway tendencies evident in De Bon Coeur as a young horse.

"She is better with more pace and this is a shorter distance [than the Grande Course] so it always had the possibility of being a bit of a trap but she's won and that's the main thing," said Nicolle.

"Nowadays you can hide her away and she doesn't pull the way she did before, when she would take ten or 15 lengths out of them in the back straight."

The raw form of De Bon Coeur beating the 152-rated Berjou in such a manner will hardly strike fear into Willie Mullins, Paul Nicholls or Nicky Henderson, although they will need no reminding of how good she can be at her peak.

And they will also know that she suffered one of only two career defeats in this race 12 months ago, only to roar back to form when leaving Bapaume, L'Ami Serge and Yorkhill in her wake a month later.

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