Irish trainer gives bullish update on his stable star ahead of Leopardstown's Christmas Festival
“He’s about to bloom again... his work at home has been excellent... I'm expecting a massive run from him"
Barry Connell believes Marine Nationale is "about to bloom again" as he gave an update on his stable star.
The 2023 Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner was a beaten odds-on favourite when finishing second to the Henry de Bromhead-trained Quilixios in his seasonal reappearance at Naas last month.
However, Connell thinks that the seven-year-old ran "respectably well" on that occasion and reports that "his work at home has been excellent" since. He is set to run in the Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase at Leopardstown on December 27.
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The trainer told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: “He’s about to bloom again. He had a very truncated novice season and only had two runs and we went into the race at Naas to give him a prep before Christmas and I thought he ran respectably well. We’d left plenty to work on and around October time a couple of ours were running OK but just not all singing and all dancing.
“The winner had been to Cheltenham and Aintree and was battle-hardened so I thought it was a perfectly respectable comeback run.”
Connell added: “What I did was organise to get into Punchestown after the John Durkan meeting with Marine Nationale and Good Land just to give them an extra piece of experience before he went to the Grade One.
“Sean Flanagan rode him and couldn’t have been happier, he jumped and travelled brilliantly and his work at home has been excellent, back to where it was before he went to Cheltenham last year.
“It doesn’t take much to be a forgotten horse, just ask Nicky Henderson about Constitution Hill, but we’ll be coming in under the radar and all guns blazing on the 27th. I'm expecting a massive run from him."
The Co Kildare handler is also expecting to see improvement from Grade 1 novice hurdle winner Good Land, who finished third behind Ile Atlantique and Waterford Whispers in a beginners chase at Navan earlier this month when finishing ten and a half lengths behind the winner.
He said: “It’s very ground dependent. We’ve had a very dry spell and luckily, we got a window at Navan when it rained and the ground was soft. This horse has a history of leg problems, and it will be ground dependant on where he goes but there’s a beginners’ chase at Leopardstown and one at Fairyhouse on New Year’s Day.
“In all likelihood the ground will be good there so we’re leaning towards running him at Limerick. Nine times out of ten you will get soft ground there so that’s the plan.
“He wasn’t drilled before his comeback so we would be expecting improvement. The rider said he took a big blow between the last two fences and he wasn’t hard on him.
“If you look at the way he travelled, he travelled into it really well, jumped great and ran a fine race. In terms of jumping, I think fences are going to be a plus for him. We haven’t worked him really hard before this run but on the face of the run in Navan, it was probably a deep enough race, and I think he acquitted himself really well.”
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