ON a quiet Monday morning, with the Cheltenham Festival still weeks away but already at the forefront of our minds, Barry Connell opened the gates to his Boherbaun Stables for a look ahead at what the Festival might hold for him this year. For all the pressure that comes with the Festival, Connell’s love of training remains his priority.

“It’s totally addictive,” he says. “I enjoy the whole process. Coming down here in the morning and being with the horses, seeing them on the gallop. Just going into the stable and standing with them.

“There’s an energy that radiates off these animals. Anyone that’s been involved with horses knows they’re absolutely magic. Churchill’s quote, the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man, is totally true.”

With three Cheltenham winners to his name, one of which came in the saddle, Connell is looking forward to seeing nine-year-old Marine Nationale put his best hoof forward in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, where he will be bidding to win the two-mile chasing championship for the second year in succession.

Great temperament

Connell said: “He is very tall and leggy – very athletic. He is not a hard horse to get fit and he is, touch wood, very sound. He has a great temperament too. He goes and does his work, and you could put a child with him in his stable.”

On Marine Nationale’s excellent record at the Cheltenham Festival, Connell said: “He has been to Cheltenham twice, won there twice and not been off the bridle twice. When he walks around the pre-parade ring it’s like he’s walking around the courtyard here at home. Having the right temperament is a huge thing, especially for those championship races. The first time he ever came alive a bit was last year when there was a parade for the Champion Chase and he got a bit jig-joggy in that.

“He loves spring ground and loves Cheltenham. He was unbeaten over hurdles and in bumpers. He then won his beginners chase in Leopardstown and then ran at the Dublin Racing Festival which was the only bad run he’s ever had, it just didn’t happen for him.

“After that he got an injury to a suspensory ligament in front, so he missed most of his novice season and last year we were catching up on experience. It was only when he got to Cheltenham that he was the finished article.”

Reflecting on his two outings so far this season which have seen Marine Nationale finish runner-up in both the Grade 1 Paddy Power Rewards Club Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas and most recently in the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase at the same venue on February 1st,

Connell continued: “He was unlucky the first day – he probably should have won. On the RaceiQ data he lost 15 lengths with the mistake he made. He just came up out of Sean’s (Flanagan’s) hands too and was basically brought to a standstill. He was only beaten half a length.

Torrential downpours

“I live near Leopardstown and in the last 25 years I’ve never seen rain like before his latest run. It was the heaviest ground I’ve ever seen up there and the easy thing to do would have been not to run him. But I said we need to get a run into him and I don’t think it’s going to do him any harm. But he was never in a rhythm and in the first part of the race he was out of his comfort zone.

“To his credit, when they slowed it down halfway down the back he started to get back into it. He looked like he was going to be a bad third jumping the last but then stayed on again.

“I think we’ll see a different horse again in March. That’s not just my opinion – it’s backed up by the form book when you look at what he does when he goes there every year.

“He is nine years of age and in the prime of his life. We are looking forward to going back there. Majborough put in an excellent performance (when beating Marine Nationale last time out) – his jump index was absolutely off the radar and he met every fence spot on. The two soft ground horses in the race that day were Majborough and Found A Fifty and both of them outperformed. The two good ground horses were us and Solness. Solness pulled up and we got going in the end to finish second. I’d put a line through the run.

“On official ratings, we have 5lb to make up with Majborough but a lot of factors come into play in Cheltenham. Assuming we get spring ground and the Cheltenham factor with him having been there and won there twice, there isn’t much ground to make up.

“This morning was the first day he’d had the saddle back on him since Leopardstown. He came back from there and ate all his food and on the gallops today, there was not a bother on him.”

Outrunning the odds

More under the radar than stable star Marine Nationale, Eachtotheirown is Connell’s only other runner at the Festival with an entry in the Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. After a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Royal Bond in November, he landed an impressive nine-length success in a Thurles handicap hurdle in January.

“In November, whatever happened, we just had three or four weeks where the horses weren’t running well,” recalled Connell. “He ran a shocker in the Royal Bond, so I applied for the handicap mark and he gave me 124, so we went to Thurles a few weeks ago and he won by nine lengths and got 13lbs. He’s 137 now, but I think he’s capable of running significantly higher than that.

“He’s had to make his own running in his maiden hurdle and the handicap, but I think if he gets a truly-run championship race, he can be dropped in. He’s a super jumper. He’s a big price for the Supreme but we think he’ll be competitive. It looks a strong Supreme this year. I think he’ll outrun his odds and get into the first five or six, if not do a bit better.

“There’s no point bringing horses to Cheltenham unless you think you have a chance. I’ve brought five horses to Cheltenham and I’ve only turned right once into the non-placed enclosure.”