Six runners go to post for Sunday’s Dublin Chase, as the declarations crystallise it as a pure Grade 1 examination.
It’s Solness versus Marine Nationale again, while Willie Mullins attempts to prise the prize away using Majborough and Energumene.
Joseph O’Brien’s Solness returns as the defending winner and arrives with the only piece of recent, relevant evidence that matters. He clobbered Marine Nationale over the same Leopardstown course and distance at Christmas. That margin came with an asterisk, but not a soft one. Barry Connell’s Marine Nationale made a desperate early mistake, lost his shape, and had to burn fuel to get back into his rhythm. At this level, that sort of error doesn’t just cost lengths; it forces a horse to jump under duress for the rest of the race.
Connell’s champion chaser now needs to answer two questions in public: can he put that blemish behind him when the tempo lifts, and can he meet Solness on level psychological terms after being bullied in the air last time? If Marine Nationale travels with purpose and meets his fences, he has the class to turn the form around. If he reaches for one early, the race will get away from him again.
Will Energumene’s grit see him home?
Mullins, predictably, supplies the tactical depth. Majborough brings the profile of a horse still on the upgrade. Energumene, meanwhile, turns up as the hardened operator: a dual Champion Chase winner whose best days came when he could bowl along and attack. The expectation is that testing conditions will play to that robustness. Energumene can sustain pressure and keep clattering away when others start shortening into their fences.
Found A Fifty and Senecia complete the field, and both will hope the principals take lumps out of each other up front. But with so few runners, there is nowhere to hide. Every jumping decision will be televised, and every stride into a Leopardstown fence will feel like a referendum.
Sunday’s winner doesn’t just lift a Grade 1; he walks straight into the Cheltenham Champion Chase argument with live ammunition.