Marine Nationale gets a pat from Sean Flanagan

Marine Nationale ruled out of Fortria Chase at Navan

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Sun November 16, 2025 · 1M ago

Fans of Marine Nationale will have to wait a little longer for his eagerly awaited return after he was ruled out of Navan on Monday.

Barry Connell's stable star had been due to run in the Bar One Racing Fortria Chase, originally scheduled for Saturday but re-arranged for Monday after Storm Claudia.

However, the track was hit by more rain than expected prompting Connell to pull stumps on Marine Nationale's participation as he waits for better ground.

Connell told irishracing.com: “It was a pretty simple decision, we were keen to run the horse as he is in great form and our intention was to run when the race was on Saturday. I spoke to the course management on Tuesday and they said the track was in great nick, they’d changed the going from soft to heavy back to soft and they weren’t expecting much further rain.

“It would have been the first chase on the steeplechase course since last season, but we got all the rain that followed and they then had to move the card to Monday. Not only would the ground have been heavy, it would have been opened up by the chases run on the track before.

“As much as we want to run him it is the right thing to do, none of our plans for the rest of the season will change – he will be going to Leopardstown at Christmas, the Dublin Racing Festival, Cheltenham and Punchestown.

“He’s not a difficult horse to get fit, he’s had breaks between races before. He won the Royal Bond and then went straight to Cheltenham and won there, so he’ll be all systems go for Christmas.”

The eight-year-old was a brilliant winner of the Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle in 2023 but endured a truncated first campaign over fences the following season.

Returning in open company with limited experience under his belt last season, Marine Nationale was beaten on his first three starts before a triumphant return to Cheltenham in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, beating Jonbon by 18 lengths.

He then backed that up with another dominant display in the Champion Chase at Punchestown.

Marine Nationale is 7/2 second favourite with Sky Bet to defend his crown at Cheltenham in March.

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