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Your support makes all the difference.Racing
SUE MONTGOMERY
Mysilv, one of jump-racing's heroines, will try to make history tomorrow by becoming the first British-trained horse to win the French Champion Hurdle. The only overseas raider to have taken the prestigeous Auteuil contest - worth more than pounds 100,000 to the winner - was Ireland's Dawn Run back in 1984.
With most of the attention on the British runners in this weekend's big Flat races, the Irish Derby and the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, Mysilv's bold challenge has been overshadowed. But in what is judged one of the most open Grand Course des Haies for years, the Charlie Egerton-trained mare has a real chance of emulating Dawn Run, dubbed la phenomene by the Parisian crowd after her six-length devastation of France's best.
Mysilv warmed up for tomorrow's task by running second in a recognised trial, the Prix La Barka, on the same course three weeks ago. She coped with the unfamiliar obstacles well - French hurdles are like small, upright chase fences with a small hedge resembling a guard-rail in front and behind - and was staying on strongly at the finish to be beaten only a length and a half. That race was over two miles five; Mysilv, runner-up in the Stayers Hurdle (ironically to a French-bred, Cyborgo) on her last domestic outing, will be well suited by the extra half-mile of tomorrow's race.
Her regular pilot Jamie Osborne said yesterday: ''One of the hardest things for an English horse to cope with is the fact that the ground on take-off and landing tends to be false. They can't move the hurdles on the track like over here, so there are poached patches two strides before and two strides after each hurdle.
''Mysilv did take a few flights to be on her guard, but after that she was fine. But a horse without her balance and ability to adapt would be in trouble. The hurdles are bigger than ours, and take some jumping, and the French horses are very quick and accurate over them They will expose even a minor flaw in an English horse's technique.
''She got a little outpaced at halfway in the Barka, but the extra distance will help her. At Cheltenham she proved she could stay, and if she's a few pounds below the very best, she makes up for it in guts.''
The mare travelled to France on Tuesday, where she has been lodging at Maisons-Laffitte. Osborne planned to drive through the night to school her there this morning after riding in the last at Uttoxeter yesterday evening. Egerton said: ''She is very well indeed, in as good form as she has ever been, and did a tremendous piece of work last Friday. And she now knows her way round the course.''
Despite the value of the race - the runner-up gets pounds 50,000 - its place in the calendar means that British-trained runners have been few and far between over the years, though they have a reasonable record. The last to try was Crystal Spirit, third four years ago; before that Gaye Chance occupied the same position in 1982 and Persian War in 1968. Mysilv, a tough-minded six-year-old, has won 11 of her 18 hurdles starts. She will have a vociferous supporters club - two coach-loads from the 7,750-strong Elite Club which owns her will make the trip to Paris.
The dangers among the mare's nine rivals are likely to be the locally- trained Lida du Riffray, winner of his last three races at Auteuil, and the La Barka winner, Montperle. Good ground is forecast.
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