Sean Flanagan and Marine Nationale after the Champion Chase

Marine Nationale: will not run at Navan on MondayCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Thanks to Matt Rennie for helming the ship this morning, I’ll be taking over now to see you through what looks to be a cracking Sunday of racing. 

Before we get to that, however, there’s some disappointing news for Monday’s action as Barry Connell has confirmed Marine Nationale will not be lining up at Navan in the Fortria Chase (2.45).

The Champion Chase winner was 2-1 favourite to make a winning return at the rearranged fixture but has been ruled out due to conditions.

Connell said: “We were hoping to run him this week, that was the intention as he’s in great form.

“I was in contact with Navan earlier in the week and they weren’t expecting to get a huge amount of additional rain. They said the Fortria will be the first chase run on the track since last year but that clearly isn’t going to be the case because it’s been moved to Monday and the track will be chewed up on heavy ground. 

“Our horse handles most ground, but he’s a light-moving horse; he’s better on better ground. I would’ve run him if the original circumstances had prevailed, but the whole ball game changed when they moved the race to Monday and the amount of rain we’ve had in the last few days will make the ground very unsuitable.

“As a consequence of that, we’ll go straight to Leopardstown. He’s not a hard horse to get fit. We had a break from the Royal Bond to Cheltenham with him before, so that’s not an issue. 

“We’re going to Leopardstown at Christmas, the Dublin Racing Festival, then Cheltenham and Punchestown. I think if we’d run him in the Fortria, it would’ve been the wrong thing to do.”

Where does that leave us for Monday’s Grade 2 contest? Dinoblue, another Cheltenham Festival winner, will take over at the head of the market. She ended the season in the form of her life when scoring at Punchestown in May and receives weight all round.