Connell decides to wait for Leopardstown with Marine National

Marine Nationale’s eagerly-awaited seasonal debut will have to wait, with Barry Connell opting not to run him in the rescheduled Bar One Racing Fortria Chase at Navan on Monday.

The eight-year-old, winner of Champion Chases at both Cheltenham and Punchestown last season, was set to get his campaign under way in the Grade Two feature when it was due to take place on Saturday.

That fixture was postponed after relentless rainfall and moved to Monday, but with the Sunday card given the go-ahead following an inspection, Connell felt the ground would prove too testing for him to run his stable star.

“It was a pretty simple decision, we were keen to run the horse as he is in great form and our intention was to run when the race was on Saturday,” said the owner-trainer.

“I spoke to the course management on Tuesday and they said the track was in great nick, they’d changed the going from soft to heavy back to soft and they weren’t expecting much further rain.

“It would have been the first chase on the steeplechase course since last season, but we got all the rain that followed and they then had to move the card to Monday.

“Not only would the ground have been heavy, it would have been opened up by the chases run on the track before.

“As much as we want to run him it is the right thing to do, none of our plans for the rest of the season will change – he will be going to Leopardstown at Christmas, the Dublin Racing Festival, Cheltenham and Punchestown.

“He’s not a difficult horse to get fit, he’s had breaks between races before. He won the Royal Bond and then went straight to Cheltenham and won there, so he’ll be all systems go for Christmas.”