Marine Nationale (2/1) ran out an impressive winner of the William Hill Champion Chase at the Punchestown Festival.
Having won the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on his sixth chase start, this ready defeat of Captain Guinness ought to cement Marine Nationale’s position as the top two-mile chaser but the day one feature didn’t pan out as many neutral observers had hoped.
Brilliant Ryanair Chase winner Fact To File was made the 11/10 favourite despite dropping back to two miles but Mark Walsh could be seen niggling his mount – held-up towards the rear – from around four out and Walsh was quick to ease his mount down with all chance gone three from home.
Solness had taken the field along from Captain Guinness but his lead was only ever a length or two and he never got away from quite a closely grouped pack. A bad mistake at the final ditch didn’t significantly halt his progress and he remained in front while others bided they time.
They included El Fabiolo who was in the process of running a much-improved race on this return to racing right-handed only to crash out when challenging at the second last. That left Marine Nationale with the relatively straightforward task of picking up the two front-runners which he duly did, winning by seven lengths.
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