“IF the race is on, we will run.” That was the message from Barry Connell on Friday ahead of Marine Nationale’s bid for a first Dublin Racing Festival success in Sunday’s Grade 1 Ladbrokes Dublin Chase (2.10), with the dual Cheltenham Festival hero reported to be “absolutely bouncing” ahead of his rematch with Solness and Majborough.

Given the reigning Champion Chase star has been so explosive on decent ground, some may have wondered whether we would definitely see him this weekend - but the trainer is clearly keen to run.

Connell told The Irish Field: “We’ll run if racing goes ahead. Heavy ground won’t be ideal; well, we don’t know - it might be fine. He’s just never run on it before. When he won the Royal Bond as a novice hurdler, the ground was soft and on the day he won the Supreme at Cheltenham, it was described as soft, but it was drying out and a little tacky.

“I will say, he’s obviously been working on the grass during the season - and that’s often been heavy. I know he is a light-actioned horse who dances off of good ground, but I’m hoping - like most of the good ones - he can act on any ground.

“You might ask, why am I deciding to run him on heavy ground now when we decided against running him in the Fortria earlier in the season. The difference is that we’re now in the thick of the season and I want to get another run into him. It wasn’t absolutely essential for him to run back around the time of the Fortria. This is a Grade 1 and I don’t want to leave one of those behind either.”

Marine Nationale’s Christmas near-miss came despite what easily could have been a race-ending mistake at the second fence.

“He’s bounced out of Leopardstown and we couldn’t be happier with him,” said Connell.

Lengths lost

“He had to make up a lot of ground at Christmas and the RaceiQ data is there for all to see. It’s objective. They say he lost 15 lengths with the mistake, and I think it was a case of him just being mad fresh and well in himself. He was brought to a standstill and essentially left facing the wrong way towards the M50.”

Sean Flanagan’s mount showed clear run-to-run improvement throughout last season, peaking at Cheltenham at Punchestown. Does that mean Marine Nationale will have another higher level in him come March, compared to the version we’ll see this weekend at Leopardstown?

“I think a lot of the progression you saw last season was because he entered the season as a quasi-novice, even though he was running in open company. He’d only had two runs over fences the previous season, and you need practice over fences to be able to get up to the top level - especially in the two-mile chasing division where one mistake can be so costly.

“With him playing catch-up with the senior horses, I think that was part of it. We do know that he loves Cheltenham, though. He comes alive over there.”

Connell added: “Overall, I think he’s more of the finished article this season; he has all the experience he needs now. I also feel that when he went out on his summer break before this season, he went out in a particularly good place. He’d won his previous two races effectively without having to come off the bridle. He went out on his holidays in a great place, mentally and physically, and I think that’s helped him come back in this season really fresh with a very positive mentality.

“He’s absolutely bouncing right now. I’d be optimistic that we’ll take a lot of beating.

“Heavy ground is obviously a new question for us, but I don’t think it’ll hinder him.”