Ruby Walsh accepts hot-favourite Marine Nationale will be hard to beat in the Arkle, but what is the main danger to Barry Connell's star?
Speaking on Paddy Power Media’s From The Horse’s Mouth podcast, alongside Rory Delargy and host Tom Nugent, the former champion jockey revealed he didn't think a lack of experience would cause the classy Marine Nationale too many issues as he looks to follow up last year's stunning success in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle on day one at this season's Festival in March.
"You’d like them to have some bit of experience under their belt, but whatever way you look at it, providing he wins this weekend, Marine Nationale is goes there with two and he’s not going to have a third run.
"Would it put me off him? If he wins on Saturday, no it wouldn’t."
Walsh could find few faults in Marine Nationale's chasing debut effort over Christmas and feels he'll be tough to beat when returning to Leopardstown for this Saturday's Goffs Irish Arkle Novice Chase, even if Willie Mullins opts to pitch Gaelic Warrior in against the market leader.
Walsh said: "Marine Nationale was very good in last year’s Supreme and I thought he was really good in Leopardstown on his debut over fences with a lot to like about him. He made the running too which I wouldn’t have said is what I expected and he kept it very, very simple.
"I like the way he jumped, he attacked his fences and when he was meeting them short and had to adjust his stride, you could see he was looking and watching what he was doing. He moved his feet really quickly on the take off sides and he had power when Michael O’Sullivan wanted him to stand back. So, it’s very hard to knock him and this weekend will tell a lot, but he’s hard to oppose.
"The weather is the biggest danger to Marine Nationale - if it got really testing, I’m not sure that he’s quite as exceptional a horse on really deep ground. So a deluge is the biggest danger.
"Gaelic Warrior looks like his biggest danger (in terms of his rivals), but we know he's better going right-handed.
"That’s not to say he won’t cope maybe with going left-handed, but if Gaelic Warrior did drop back in trip and I’m not suggesting that he will, whether he’d beaten or taken on Marine Nationale at Leopardstown over two miles and one furlong on a stiff track with only two fences in the last five furlongs for you to jump right at, at Cheltenham it’s different again.
"A mile and seven, off that home turn you go right at the second last and right again at the last.
"I'd find it very hard to oppose the favourite. Looking outside and for value, I thought at a good price there was a lot to like about Quilixios at Naas (replay below) and if you’re looking for something against him, he might be the one I’d be siding with, but Marine Nationale looks rock solid and he’s a very good horse."
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And what of Facile Vega, the forgotten horse in the novice chase division who followed home Marine Nationale in the 2023 Supreme? Walsh isn't convinced he's a two-miler through and through, saying: "Facile Vega has got a lot to prove – he’s got to step back up. He's going to run at the weekend. Whether he’ll run two miles or two miles and five, I don’t know.
"He’s been in work and has plenty of work done. I don’t know if there would be a strong difference of opinion maybe about Facile Vega among the quarters in Closutton. Everyone has their own opinion, but there’s only one opinion that counts!
"It will be interesting to see what they do with him and I suppose pedigree wise, to me it’s starting to look like he’s more his dam, but I think most pedigrees are and people are so quick to look at stallions purely out of fashion. It’s what’s on the dam’s side that’s most important and Facile Vega’s not out of a two miler so maybe he’ll step up in trip and that’ll be the making of him."
Cheltenham Countdown on Paddy Power Media’s From The Horse’s Mouth podcast
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