JUMP racing returns to the spotlight this week, thanks to another top-class two-day festival at Auteuil. Many familiar names graced the number one spot after the weekend’s feature races, but there were a few new names too.

From an Irish perspective, most interest centred on one of the Grade 1 winners, the Susannah Ricci-owned and Willie Mullins-trained four-year-old filly Selma De Vary (Zarak). She ran in, and won, the Prix Alain du Breil d’Ete Hurdle, the Gallic equivalent of the Triumph Hurdle. This was a fourth win in the race for the trainer. Bred by Jacques Cypres and Count Guillaume de Saint-Seine (president of France Galop), Selma De Vary has come a long way since her debut in a two-year-old race on the Deauville all-weather soon after Christmas Day 2020.

Seventh of 13 runners that day, and eighth of 15 three weeks later at the same venue, she left the care of her first trainer and moved to Emmanuel Clayeux, and immediately went hurdling. Runner-up on her jumping debut, and fifth in a Grade 3, she opened her account with a nine-length routing of the opposition last November in a fillies hurdle race at Auteuil.

Moved again, this time to Willie Mullins, her rate of progression can be gauged by the fact that she contested a Grade 1 at the Dublin Racing Festival, well held by Narciso Has in second place. The choice of Paul Townend from the nine Mullins runners in the Triumph Hurdle, she was fourth, and then could not get to Mange Tout in the Grade 1 juvenile hurdle at Aintree, going down by three-parts of a length. Now, on her ninth start, she has won for the second time, but in a Grade 1.

Female pedigree

From a largely flat female pedigree, Selma De Vary has some interesting National Hunt connections. She is the first foal out of the three-year-old mile and a half winner Alliance A Vary, a daughter of the Derby winner Authorized (Montjeu). Alliance A Vary was raced by Count de Saint-Seine, and has a number of youngstock by leading jumps sires to race for her.

Alliance A Vary visited Zarak (Dubawi) at Haras de Bonneval when the sire was standing his fourth season at a fee of €12,000. Thanks to an impressive start with his first runners, Zarak more than doubled to €25,000 for year five, jumped to €60,000 for the next two years, and is now in his second year at a fee of €80,000. Classic winner Metropolitan, Prix Ganay winner Haya Zark, and Zagrey are his Group 1 winners on the flat, while Selma De Vary is his second Grade 1 hurdle winner.

A hugely familiar name to National Hunt followers appears in the fourth remove of Selma De Vary’s family. The winning Nare Aux Fees (Kenmare) is his fourth dam, and she left behind 10 winners, half of them successful in blacktype races. Belle Allure (Numerous) was a Group and Grade 3 winner in France and the USA and bred a Group 1 winner in Japan, but in terms of ranking she has to give best to her half-brother Jukebox Jury (Montjeu).

The former Burgage Stud sire, Jukebox Jury won the Group 1 The Irish Field St Leger and Group 1 Preis von Europa, while many forget that he was a smart juvenile, successful in the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes and runner-up in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy. He is a Group 1 sire on the flat and a multiple Grade 1 sire under National Hunt rules.

ANOTHER of the Grade 1 winners at the weekend in Auteuil was Metronomique, and he gained his sixth win in the Prix Ferdinand Dufaure Chase. Just a four-year-old, he is a son of the Group 1 Prix Ganay winner Cloth Of Stars (Sea The Stars), and the first top-level winner for the stallion who stood six seasons at Haras du Logis before moving to Haras de Montaigu last year.

The former Darley sire is no longer covering thoroughbreds according to Montaigu’s Sybille Gibson, and what a pity. Maybe breeders would reconsider using him now, given the emergence of such a star as Metronomique. He is the stallion’s seventh blacktype winner (his oldest are six-year-olds), along with a host of others who have been placed in such races.

Let’s consider the credentials of Cloth Of Stars’ son Metronomique. The gelded four-year-old was bred by Edwige Le Metayer’s Neustrian Associates at Haras de Buff. He sold as a yearling at Arqana for €45,000 to Englishman Noel George and his Swedish partner Amanda Zetterholm, and they train him for a British-based quartet. Metronomique has raced nine times, won six, finishing runner-up on his first two outings.

Sole defeat

George blames himself for Metronomique’s sole defeat over fences in six starts, when the gelding fell at Auteuil back in March. This he puts down to poor riding instructions.

With more than £280,000 in the bank, and a great future in front of him, get ready to hear a lot more about Metronomique. His winning rider, James Reveley, described him as a “real machine”, adding that “he would be perfect for English two-mile chases”.

This was an interesting comment, given that his Grade 1 win came over two miles, six furlongs, and he has never run over two miles!

Metronomique carried the colours of Sharon Colleen Nelson, and she was part-owner of the Polish-bred Galileo who won the 2002 Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, trained by Noel George’s father Tom.

Nelson’s loyalty to the George family has finally been rewarded with another top-level success. Il Est Francais, El Clavel and It’s Win O’Clock have been the training duo of Zetterholm’s and George’s previous Grade 1 winners in what is still a fledgling but already successful career.

The dam of Sunday’s winner, the unraced Gousse Vanille (Network), has made a perfect start at stud. Her first foal, the filly La Vanille (Nirvana Du Berlais), sold to Stephen Kemble for €10,000 as a yearling and is a three-time winner over jumps in France, twice over hurdles for George and Zetterholm, and once over fences. Metronomique is her second foal.

Natural Class

Gousse Vanille’s next two offspring both sold last year, for €55,000 and €90,000 respectively, and they are a three-year-old son of Beaumac De Houelle (Martaline) and a two-year-old daughter of Ectot (Hurricane Run). Their sale values could well be exceeded should the mare’s most recent produce, a yearling colt by Castle Du Berlais (Saint Des Saints), come to market. The three-year-old is now named Natural Class and has been entered to run a few times.

Gousse Vanille is a half-sister to Grade 3 Auteuil chase winner Knoxville (Tunis) and French listed hurdle and chase winner Vieux Morvan (Voix Du Nord), and the latter’s best runs after moving to Ireland and joining Joseph O’Brien were to finish runner-up in a pair of Leopardstown graded chases, to Last Goodbye and Auvergnat.

With Metronomique being a multiple blacktype winner, his first four dams have all bred at least one such winner. His third dam produced Vaniteux (Voix Du Nord), winner of a Grade 2 novice chase at Doncaster and placed in the Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle behind Vautour for Nicky Henderson. Meanwhile, the fourth dam had two blacktype winners among her nine victorious offspring.