With Marine Nationale's stable star fully recovered from the injury that kept him out of the Cheltenham Festival, Barry Connell is thinking about a possible Flat outing for the horse in the autumn.
After making a strong debut in the Leopardstown Chase over Christmas, the seven-year-old, who had won the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Prestbury Park the previous year, appeared to be destined for greater heights. However, he was not successful in the Irish Arkle in February.
Connell had hoped that a trip back to Cheltenham would help his pride and joy get back to winning ways, but a suspensory ligament injury forced him to miss a scheduled match against the Arkle and ended his season.
Marine Nationale's owner and trainer have begun planning for the upcoming campaign, which may include at least one spin on the level, even though the horse will soon be enjoying his summer vacation.
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 Flat races, if not two, and we’ll see from there. 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.”