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It’s a rare thing for Auteuil’s biggest weekend of the year to pass without Willie Mullins getting a piece of the pie, and Selma De Vary – the perennial champion of Ireland’s only runner at the meeting – took the Grade 1 Prix Alain du Breil under a brilliant waiting ride from Paul Townend.
The four-year-old championship race of the spring in France had attracted a host of well-touted names among the French ranks, notably Leopard Du Berlais, winner of the Grade 1 Prix Cambaceres at the track in November.
Selma De Vary took her return to French-style hurdles in her stride but gave a long start to her rivals, before Townend made stylish progress into the race around the home turn.
Fourth in the Triumph and then second behind Mange Tout in the 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle at Aintree, Selma De Vary picked up well from the back of the final hurdle to hold the renewed challenge of another filly, Delmegan.
“I would have maybe liked to wait longer and it’s a long way up the straight but she took me there easily and she’s a tough filly,” said Townend, who was winning the race for the first time, ten years on from Footpad, the most recent of Mullins’ two previous successes.
“She’s a magnificent jumper and she had all the experience of being around here before. She doesn’t lose a second, she’s very measured.”
Townend added: “We were going a good gallop and I went out intent on trying to settle her. I didn’t plan being as far back as I was but the gallop they were going, I thought they’d have had to be machines to keep it up. And I could rely on her jumping getting her into it.
“She’s had a hard season and she had a couple of hard races starting at the Dublin Racing Festival. Then there’s the travelling for a young horse, travelling to England twice and now here. She’s a very good filly.”
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