Despite testing conditions Barry Connell's Marine Nationale is ready to make his seasonal debut in the Bar One Racing Fortria Chase at Navan on Saturday.
The eight-year-old was ultimately the dominant force in the top-grade two-mile chase division last season, warming to the task with placed runs before hitting top gear to win both the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham and the Champion Chase at Punchestown.
"We’ve been crying out for rain and it’s head-wracking. We ended up running very little in the summer because the ground was too quick so we had to put them away," Connell said.
"Soft ground now compared to soft-heavy in January is a different ball game. There’s a bottom to the ground now because only two weeks ago they were maybe thinking about watering.
"I’d say with that it mind it should be fine for him and after this we’ll follow last year’s plan.
"Last year he was able to run in the race at Naas as it was for second-season chasers. His only other option would be the Hilly Way, but the ground is usually heavy there.
"After Navan he’s got the two races at Leopardstown, then Cheltenham and Punchestown."
Also involved is Henry de Bromhead’s Captain Guinness, winner of Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2024 and third behind Marine Nationale in the race last term.
He gets his season under way in the race, as does Joseph O’Brien’s Solness, fourth behind Captain Guinness in the Queen Mother, alongside Gordon Elliott’s Touch Me Not and Willie Mullins’ Dinoblue.
Dinoblue, winner of the Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase at Cheltenham, is one of two Mullins-trained horses with the other being Hercule Du Seuil.
The latter was in action over the summer, winning the Grade Three An Riocht Chase at Killarney in good style, and the field is completed by a second runner of Elliott’s in Found A Fifty.
There is another Grade Two on the card in the Railway Bar Lismullen Hurdle, run over two and a half miles with a field of six set to line up.
Elliott has two hopes in The Yellow Clay, second in the Turners Novices’ Hurdle at the Festival lat season, and Boyne Hurdle winner Maxxum.
Lorna Fowler’s Colonel Mustard enters the fray, with the group completed by Eddie and Patrick Harty’s Grandero Bello, Jessica Harrington’s Jetara and Declan Queally’s Mozzies Sister.
Watch live racing with the Navan Winter Festival this Sunday from 1.10pm on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player
