Solness denies Marine Nationale in Leopardstown thriller

Solness repeated his victory of 12 months ago in the Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase when seeing off a truly gallant Marine Nationale in a thrilling race at Leopardstown.

Only half a length separated them at the line in the Grade One feature, but the Barry Connell-trained Marine Nationale and Sean Flanagan had worked wonders mid-race to keep their partnership intact after a dreadful blunder.

It was to their credit they arrived almost upsides Solness (8-1), with Majborough just behind, at the final fence, but it was Joseph O’Brien’s Solness, with Sam Ewing replacing the stood down J J Slevin, who prevailed for the second year in a row.

“He’s very good here in Leopardstown,” said O’Brien, who went close to back-to-back King George VI Chase wins at Kempton Park on Boxing Day with Banbridge.

“I don’t know what it is, we tend to keep him wide looking for the better ground and he likes being in lots of space and it seems to work.

“My heart goes out to J J who was stood down with concussion after the last race. He’s done all the hard work on the horse, but Sam gave him a fantastic ride.

“The horse is as tough as nails, and it was a great race. It was a great run from Marine Nationale after making that mistake early.

“He’ll come back here for the Dublin Racing Festival. The track suits him as he likes to be ridden aggressively and the drier ground here.”

Paddy Power cut the winner to 20-1 from 50s for the Champion Chase in March, but Marine Nationale was the big mover, sharing favouritism at 11-4 with Il Etait Temps from 7-2. Majborough was pushed out to 8-1 from 5s.

Connell, who also owns Marine Nationale, could not have been happier with his returning champion, bar winning.

“I couldn’t really see what happened with his mistake and I haven’t seen a replay yet,” he said.

“Sean said he just came up out of his hands through exuberance and he caught it with his hind legs and landed steeply.

“He ended up facing the wrong way, it looked like he was heading down the M50 to Dublin. I’ve never seen a horse face the wrong direction before and I’ve been going racing a long time.

“You never know how much it takes out of a horse making ground up, but he did make it up quickly after losing a lot of momentum. It must have taken an effort, though.

“Outside of winning the race we were thrilled and I think the horse is starting to get the credit he deserves now.

“We’ve a nice gap to the DRF (Dublin Racing Festival) now and then on to Cheltenham. We know what we have and I wouldn’t swap him.

“Fair play to Solness, he’s a 10lb better horse at Leopardstown it seems, but we know our lad loves Cheltenham, he’s been there twice and bolted up twice.”