Last year’s imperious Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner and current ante-post favourite for the Arkle Challenge Trophy Marine Nationale will line up in Saturday’s Grade 1 Irish Arkle at Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival and he will face five rivals in the coveted contest across the Irish Sea.
In the lead-up to the final declarations there had been talk that Willie Mullins could well send the unbeaten novice chaser Gaelic Warrior to the Irish Arkle in a real clash of the titans, but the Closutton handler opted against dropping back in distance with his star novice chaser and instead will send last year’s Supreme runner-up Facile Vega alongside the classy duo of Sharjah and Il Etaits Temps.
Marine Nationale produced an absolutely stunning performance to upset the well-fancied Facile Vega in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at last season’s Cheltenham Festival and the Barry Connell-trained seven-year-old maintained his 100% record under Rules when landing a fine victory on chasing debut at Leopardstown over Christmas. Stepping back into top class company for this event, Marine Nationale is likely to be a red-hot favourite for this contest, as he looks to solidify his place at the top of the betting for the Arkle on March 12 and he certainly looks the one to beat.
Facile Vega has failed to fire over fences and will be on a retrieval mission here, while the veteran Sharjah was well beaten last time out in the Racing Post Novice Chase, so will need to improve on that effort. Fifth in the Supreme last year, Il Etaits Temps has won one of his two chases and he looks to be another of the Mullins team that could be against a potentially top class novice chaser.
The winner of the abovementioned Racing Post Novice Chase was Gordon Elliott’s Found A Fifty and that contender is a fascinating runner in this contest and the seven-year-old could be a notable thorn in the side of Marine Nationale, while Senecia completes the six-strong line-up and faces a huge uphill battle on ratings.
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