Marine Nationale may return on the Flat before jumping comeback

The seven-year-old was an absentee at the Cheltenham Festival.

Barry Connell is considering a potential Flat outing in the autumn for Marine Nationale after reporting his stable star to have fully recovered from the injury that ruled him out of the Cheltenham Festival.

A brilliant winner of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Prestbury Park last year, the seven-year-old looked set to take high rank over the larger obstacles following an impressive chasing debut at Leopardstown over Christmas, but he subsequently failed to fire in the Irish Arkle in February.

Connell was hoping a return to Cheltenham would see his pride and joy bounce back to form, but a suspensory ligament injury ruled out a planned tilt at the Arkle and ultimately ended his season.

Barry Connell (left) celebrates after Marine Nationale won at the Cheltenham Festival in 2023
Barry Connell (left) celebrates after Marine Nationale won at the Cheltenham Festival in 2023 (Mike Egerton/PA)

Marine Nationale will soon enjoy a summer break, but his owner and trainer has already started formulating plans for the next campaign, which could well involve at least one spin on the level.

Connell said: “All is good, it was very minor, just like a sprain and the scans are 100 per cent.

“He will probably be going out to grass next week after Punchestown and when he comes back in we might give him a run or two on the Flat before gearing up for a Queen Mother (Champion Chase) campaign.

“He had a truncated season this year with only the two runs so we could certainly run him in one of those qualified riders Flat races, if not two, and we’ll see from there.

“Because he’s not a Grade One winner we can get plenty of experience into him over fences in the autumn, there’s a couple of Grade Threes and Grade Twos where he’ll be getting all the allowances. I’d like to give him a couple of runs over fences in October and November before the ground turns and then aim for Leopardstown at Christmas and the Dublin Racing Festival.

“He’s 100 per cent and the injury he had shouldn’t be an issue going forward. It’s not like a horse who had a tendon injury and you’d be concerned they mightn’t operate again, this was a suspensory tweak so it was nothing really.”

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