SATURDAY evening was a big evening for Ireland and for Paul Townend at Auteuil, with the Willie Mullins-trained Bapaume winning the Prix la Barka and the Ross O’Sullivan-trained Baie Des Iles winning the Prix des Drags, both horses ridden by Paul Townend.

Willie Mullins having winners in France is nothing new (Willie Mullins having winners anywhere is really not new), and the Irish champion trainer had five of the 12 runners in the Prix la Barka, a race that he had won four times since 2012.

But you still have to get them there at concert pitch, and it was a fine performance by Bapaume, who had finished second in the “French Champion Hurdle” three weeks previously over a distance that probably stretched his stamina.

It was superb training performance too by Ross O’Sullivan to go to France with Baie Des Iles and win a Grade 2 chase with her, eight weeks after she had finished 12th in the Grand National.

The trainer was undoubtedly assisted by his wife Katie Walsh, who has plenty of local knowledge, having won the Prix la Barka on Thousand Stars in 2014, and ridden him to finish second in the “French Champion Hurdle” in 2015.

Baie Des Iles won over hurdles and fences at Auteuil as a three-year-old when she was trained by Arnaud Chaille-Chaille, and it makes sense that O’Sullivan is already thinking about a return to Auteuil next May for the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.