A shock defeat for Marine Nationale in the Grade 1 Irish Arkle on Saturday of the Dublin Racing Festival has thrown the market wide open for the second race on day one of the 2024 Cheltenham Festival.
Despite cruising to victory on his chasing debut, Barry Connell’s charge was soundly beaten at Leopardstown by Il Etait Temps, one of Willie Mullins’ clean-sweeping Grade 1 team. He beat just a single horse home, the rank outsider Senecia, and an inquest will surely be going on back at his yard as to any underlying issues.
He remains the favourite for the Arkle at the Cheltenham Festival, but is now an unsteady market leader, with the one-two from Saturday, Il Etait Temps and Found A Fifty closing on him. The former is now a two-time Grade 1 winner, with one each over hurdles and fences, while the latter narrowly failed to add a second successive Leopardstown Grade 1 win. With just a neck to overturn, Gordon Elliott will be hoping his seven-year-old can reverse that form come the Festival.
The result will also give heart to a British challenge in the race which had previously seemed unlikely. The likes of JPR One, an impressive winner recently at Lingfield, Master Chewy, a Grade 2 scorer at Kempton, and Djelo, a staying-on runner up in the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown on Saturday, may all be in the mix for an upset success.