Expect to see a different Marine Nationale at Cheltenham, insists Barry Connell

Barry Connell with Marine Nationale on Monday. Picture: Lorraine O'Sullivan/The Jockey Club

Barry Connell has a well-earned reputation for talking up the horses he owns and trains and, while he insists he won’t be so publicly bullish in future, he will continue to make an exception in the case of dual Cheltenham Festival hero Marine Nationale.

The Champion Chaser will return to Cheltenham to defend his crown next month where Majborough, 19 lengths his superior at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown last week, will again lie in wait.

Mission impossible? Not according to Connell. Not at Marine Nationale’s beloved Cheltenham. Not on better ground.

“I think we’ll see a different horse in March and that’s not just my opinion, it’s backed up by the formbook when you look at what he does when he goes to Cheltenham,” Connell says.

“He’s been there twice, won twice, and hasn’t come off the bridle twice. Having the temperament over there is a huge thing, especially for those championship races. He loves spring ground and he loves Cheltenham.

“He’s nine years of age, he’s in the prime of his life so we’re looking forward to going back there.

“If we look at official ratings, Majborough is rated 174, we were 170 but we dropped 1lb to 169 so he’s run to 174 in absolutely perfect conditions (for him), making no mistake, on a galloping track that suits him. On official ratings we have 5lb to make up, that isn’t that much.

“On the day, when we were beaten 19 lengths, you would say: How are we going to reverse that? But they were extreme conditions. He’s won on summer soft before but he wouldn’t go a yard in that and didn’t.

“I live near Leopardstown and in the last 25 years I’ve never seen rain like it, it was the heaviest ground I’ve ever seen up there. The easy thing would have been not to run him but I just said: ‘We need to get a run into him and I don’t think it’s going to do any harm’. But he was never in a rhythm the first part of the race, he was out of his comfort zone.

“To his credit, when they slowed it down half way down the back, he started to get back into it again. It looked like he was going to be a bad third jumping the last but he stayed on for second.” 

Not that Connell is underestimating the scale of the challenge facing Marine Nationale at Cheltenham.

“Majborough put in an excellent performance at Leopardstown, his jumping index was absolutely off the radar, 9.5. Eight is a good jumping index. Not only did he not make a mistake, he met every fence spot-on.” 

However, Connell retains full faith in his pride and joy.

“People are probably fed up listening to me bigging up my own horses and I’m not going to do it again, I swear to God. Only for him, because I know how good he is. But I won’t be doing it again, it’s too much stress. I went to the Supreme and couldn’t see him getting beat. He’s a special animal. He’s not a once in a lifetime, he’s a one in 10,000 and we’re lucky he landed in our yard.” 

Connell recently made headlines for branding the Clarence House Chase won by Jonbon a “Mickey Mouse” race.

Explaining his rationale, Connell says: “It ended up a Mickey Mouse race, there were only two finishers for what was supposed to be a trial for the Champion Chase. The winner won’t even run in it and the second (Thistle Ask) is 50-1 so that wasn’t a trial for the Champion Chase. That’s why I called it a Mickey Mouse race.

“The other point about Jonbon is Jonbon is not a relevant yardstick to be measuring Champion horses against. He’s had a fantastic career, he has been a credit to his connections, everyone would love to have him but he’s never won a championship race. He’s collecting Grade Ones, beating (the likes of) Boothill and Edwardstone. Il Etait Temps got his rating of 172 by beating Jonbon in the Celebration Chase and the Tingle Creek, a race run a fence slower than the race Lulamba ran in. It was a nothing race, they hacked around.” Marine Nationale won’t be Connell’s sole Cheltenham representative.

Eachtotheirown will bid to emulate his stablemate by winning the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

“He’s going to be a big price but I think he’ll outrun his odds, hopefully get into the first five or six if not do a bit better,” Connell says. “But it looks a deep race this year.” One Connell horse who won’t be heading to the Cotswolds is William Munny, runner-up in last year’s Supreme. A succession of issues, most recently a muscle tear, have derailed a Champion Hurdle bid, much to Connell’s frustration.

“I thought the Champion Hurdle might cut up this year so that was our plan. Six to seven weeks ago, he was trotting and he was lame as a duck, so lame that we thought he done a pelvis or one of the big bones in his legs but he got scanned and there was nothing broken, it was just a very bad muscle tear. It has healed completely now and he’ll be back under the saddle next week.

“We’re hoping to get him back for Punchestown, just to give him one run in open company this year and we’ll be going to the Champion Hurdle route again next year. It’s just soul-destroying when you have a horse who would have been capable of being very competitive in a Champion Hurdle. But he’s something to look forward to next year.”