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.