Michael O'Sullivan was delighted to follow in his family's footsteps when riding his first Cheltenham Festival winner aboard Marine Nationale in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle last Tuesday.
O'Sullivan hails from a well known racing family.
His uncle Eugene is a successful trainer who provided both his father, William, and cousin Maxine with winners at the Cheltenham Festival in the Foxhunter Chase and Michael was delighted to add his name to the family roll of honour.
"It was brilliant," he said. "I suppose I grew up listening to stories of Dad's winner there in '91 and Eugene trained it and my grandfather owned and bred it and obviously I was there when Maxine won a couple of years ago, so it was great to say I've been there and done it as well."
O'Sullivan was first asked to ride for Marine Nationale's owner / trainer Barry Connell in a point-to-point and maintained the partnership in a Hunter Chase at Downpatrick where he met Connell for the first time. Scanning the entries while helping his father get the cows in on their dairy farm, he noticed that Marine Nationale wasn't jocked up ahead of his Rules debut and that the yard didn't have an amateur so sent Connell a text asking for the ride and the rest is history.
Marine Nationale duly won his bumper at Punchestown and made an immediate impression on his young jockey.
"He was very, very impressive," he told Nick Luck on Luck on Sunday.
"It went very smoothly and it was just one of them things that it went so easily, you're just questioning yourself how good was it. It was just the turn of foot he showed when Demandrivingdouvan drew up on his outside and he just quickened away again and I thought I'm sitting on something a bit different here.
"I suppose I hadn't sat on proper Grade One horses in a race before so I couldn't come in and say that but I think he took us all by surprise a small bit. Even Barry was hoping that he would be in the first three or four that day. I came in and said 'you've got a very nice horse on your hands here and thanks for letting me ride him'."
The partnership remained intact, winning another bumper at Killarney before adding a maiden hurdle and the Grade One Royal Bond to their tally and they're still unbeaten after last week's curtain raiser, a race that O'Sullivan told Luck went very smoothly.
"I was very happy coming down the hill, I thought I had him (Facile Vega) covered. I suppose I got a small bit worried when he got that gap between Aidan (Coleman) and Daryl (Jacob) and he just quickened through it. Turning in he stretched me a small bit but I was confident enough that I just had to give my horse a chance and take a breath and going to the last I was very, very happy I had him covered and it was just a matter of getting from A to B.
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"The horse was mightily impressive, he won quite easily really, even on that ground; he'd be better again on better ground.
"He wasn't really having much of it though after the race, he didn't have a hard race, I was very, very lucky to be on his back."
O'Sullivan believes there's still a good deal more to come from Marine Nationale.
"He is pure pace but he stays too and he galloped right through the line both days," he continued.
"I wouldn't be afraid of going up in trip with him at all but the gears and the way he travels so easily, it's mightily impressive and he's a brilliant jumper. He's just very, very good in every attribute that he has, he's so, so clever you could nearly talk to him he's that smart. He's just a pleasure to be around."
Luck then asked 'are there any flaws in him?' to which came the reply: "No, he's amazing. I haven't found a flaw yet anyway."
Connell had been equally confident about a big run from Good Land in the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle but he could only finish fourth behind impressive winner Impaire Et Passe.
O'Sullivan, however, doesn't feel Good Land gave his running: "I was happy with my position throughout the race but I was never really happy with the horse," he explained.
"He felt a bit flat, he didn't jump or travel as well as he can do and he had a good blow afterwards.
"I think he was a small bit snotty in his nose yesterday morning so maybe he was just coming down with something because he was in great form leading up to it. He still ran a very, very solid race and it rode a very good race so for him to run as well as he did and not be 100%, I think he's a proper horse and he's one to look forward to next year over fences."
Luck was keen to end the interview on a positive note and it seems that Connell's confidence is rubbing off on his retained jockey as when asked whether Marine Nationale would beat Impaire Et Passe over two miles, he replied: "Oh yeah, definitely.
"It would be a good race all right. It would be interesting, maybe someday in the future, at Punchestown......we'll see."
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