Marine Nationale can make winning return

The promising Colonia Victoria gets the nap to make the most of a favourable mark in the Hotel Park St Johann In Tirol Austria Handicap Hurdle

Sat, 15 Nov, 2025 - 06:02

Tommy Lyons

Navan’s two-day festival helps the National Hunt season ramp up another notch, with plenty of stars in action over the weekend. There are many reasons to tune in Saturday afternoon, with reigning Champion Chaser Marine Nationale taking on a former winner, Captain Guinness, and the Mares’ Chase winner, Dinoblue, while Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Kopek Des Bordes embarks on his chasing career.

Add the Grade Two Lismullen Hurdle and some other exciting newcomers to hurdling for some proper jumps racing at one of the country’s best tracks.

On going that will be testing, and with that notorious hill to climb to the finishing line, chinks in the armour, especially those pertaining to fitness, will be exposed.

In the day’s feature, the Grade Two Bar One Racing Fortria Chase, only Found A Fifty has recent form, and that was a modest effort in the Grade One Champion Chase at Down Royal. This trip will be more suitable for last year’s winner and he must be respected, but this is a considerably tougher renewal.

Champion Chaser Marine Nationale is the one to beat after he left behind a couple of okay runs with that fine display in Cheltenham, where he was upsides Quilixios when that one fell at the last in the Champion Chase.

He followed up at the Punchestown festival and while the focus is on a return to Cheltenham, he ought to be forward enough to take beating in this company. Is he a betting prospect? Probably not, though his price may tempt players.

Captain Guinness, who won this race in 2022 and 2023 but was found to be clinically abnormal when pulled up in the race last year, is rising 11 and this is likely an important target for him at this stage of his career. If the Champion Chaser is below his best, he can take advantage.

The promising Colonia Victoria gets the nap to make the most of a favourable mark in the Hotel Park St Johann In Tirol Austria Handicap Hurdle. A maiden but a useful sort on the Flat on the continent, she got off the mark for her career on her second start for Paul Nolan, doing so in a maiden hurdle on soft ground in Cork.

She was disappointing back on the Flat in Galway but much more promising when returned to hurdling for her most recent outing. On ground that was probably as quick as she wanted, she was settled off the pace and stayed on well to take second place behind the hat-trick-completing Rock Ya Boy Ya.

While she may prefer a longer trip than Saturday’s, the ground and track bring stamina into play, and she can show that a mark of 118 undersells her. San Hilario and Lambay Island are others worth considering, while Luker’s Tipple deserves a winning turn but has become frustrating.

Ballymore runner-up The Yellow Clay can make a winning return in the Grade Two Lismullen Hurdle. Carrying top weight in the conditions won’t be easy but if he is to develop into a Stayers’ Hurdle contender, this is the type of assignment he ought to mop up. Mozzies Sister, with all the allowances, could be a danger.

Ma Jacks Hill has something to find with I’ll Sort That on their recent meeting, in Galway, but the drop back to two miles for the Grade Three Bar One Racing For Auction Novice Hurdle can help him turn the form around. A forward-going, slick-jumping sort, he can dictate throughout.

The feature on Sunday’s card is the Grade Three Bar One Racing Troytown Handicap Chase and Will The Wise can justify his position at the head of the mark.

A strong stayer, he has had two runs this season, both over considerably shorter trips than this, and even if the most recent of them was an unsatisfactory contest, he picked up valuable experience ahead of this tougher assignment.

A winner of both previous outings with the word ‘heavy’ in the description, he will appreciate the step up to three miles, and can make his fitness count against the likes of Quai De Bourbon, Search For Glory, and Answer To Kayf.

Final Demand makes his chasing debut in the seventh race and while he faces some smart hurdlers, he ought to be a step ahead of them.

NAVAN (Saturday)

Selections

11:50 Classical Creek

12:25 Themanintheboots

1:00 Colonia Victoria (Nap)

1:35 Ma Jacks Hill

2:10 The Yellow Clay (NB)

2:45 Marine Nationale

3:20 Kopek Des Bordes

3:55 Lemmy Caution

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