Our David Ord is out in Ireland ahead of the Cheltenham Festival and he spoke to Marine Nationale's jockey Michael O'Sullivan about bouncing back.
There are bumps in many a road to Cheltenham and for Michael O’Sullivan, a rising star in the Irish weighing room, he’s just had his first.
Marine Nationale went to the Dublin Racing Festival as a key member of team March bankers, but fluffed his lines in the Irish Arkle. Sent off at 4/7 he was uncharacteristically laboured as he came home a well beaten fifth.
A bump in the road but no need to call out the AA. The wheels are still on.
“He’s good, he came out of the race fine. He seems happy and healthy at home. He’s sound in every way,” the jockey said.
“Obviously it was very disappointing for him to get beat, but he’s had seven runs and won six of them and lost one. There might have been a number of factors behind it but nothing substantial it seems. It was his second run over fences in a Grade One against horses who have run in Grade Ones before. He just wasn’t 100% happy, whatever it was on the day.
“But he’s come out of it fine and seems well at home. I’m looking forward to Cheltenham now and wouldn’t swap him for anything else in the race although it probably looks more open now.”
Even before the Leopardstown race O’Sullivan wasn’t getting the usual positive vibes from the gelding aboard whom he careered to victory on in last year’s Sky Bet Supreme.
“In the parade ring he walks around as if he’s at home but when I came out of the weighing room, I could see he was a bit on his toes and that’s not like him. And when I got on him, he just didn’t seem 100% happy. I don’t know what it was,” he reflected.
“In the early part of the race he jumped and travelled well. I was happy but when we started to up the gears, he wasn’t giving me the same feeling as normal. At the fourth last he was a bit slow in the air and that’s a sure sign, when a horse takes longer in the air, you know they aren’t happy.
“I was beat from the back of the second last. Usually, I give him a squeeze and he takes off and that didn’t happen. I looked after him from there and I’m glad I did. He came out of fresh and well and hopefully now he’ll be back to himself at Cheltenham.
“I think the Arkle will suit him. They’ll go a strong gallop, he’ll travel and if he’s on song as I said I wouldn’t swap him for anything.”
O’Sullivan might well have found a horse of a lifetime in his first season as a professional. It’s not lost on him either.
“The Supreme win was very surreal, special, like a dream. I know it’s all the clichés. I turned professional last September, only a few months before, and was under no illusions about how privileged I am to come across two Grade One horses as a seven and five pound claimer,” he said.
“A lot of jockeys go through their whole career looking for one. I was just very lucky to come across him. Obviously the build up to Cheltenham was huge and to have my first ride at the Festival in the Supreme, a Grade One, the first race, was a dream in itself and to go and win it was extra special.
“It was hard to appreciate it at the time and I probably won’t until I’m done but it was a massive moment for me.”
So when did he know he had Facile Vega covered?
“About ten strides from the last hurdle I thought a good jump here and we’re in. I was very confident. At Cheltenham you need a horse who will travel and jump, if you don’t have that you’re always on the back foot, and he did that in spades. He was awesome on the day,” he smiled.
Smiles were the order of the day at Christmas too when Marine Nationale took his first, faultless steps in public as a chaser.
“You wouldn’t read too much into what was behind him in the race, but you couldn’t fault what he did. It was a truly run race, we went nice sectionals the whole way and he didn’t put a foot wrong. Those good horses rarely do. We knew from what he did at home he’d be very good, but you can’t expect something like that,” his rider reflects.
“Maybe that was another reason for the below-par run last time mind. The chasing debut was his first run since Cheltenham and people talk about the bounce factor. That could be another aspect to it. He certainly didn’t have a very easy race the first day but what he did was awesome.”
It’s a measure of his rising stock that O’Sullivan is now one of the jockeys Willie Mullins turns to, on an increasingly regular basis.
He lives close to the legendary Closutton stables and is relishing the involvement.
“It’s unreal, I love being involved in it. I’ve been riding out there now for two years, I spend the summer there as an amateur and have been going in a couple of days a week since. I love every minute I spend in there. Just the horses, the people, are class, you’re learning something every time you’re there,” he says.
“Willie has been very good to me, he’s given me lots of opportunities. I’ve been lucky enough to ride a few winners for him and he gave me my first ride in the Grand National and the Irish Cesarewitch. It’s stuff I couldn’t have dreamed of. I’m very grateful for his support and hopefully it will continue.”
It will. Michael O’Sullivan is a rising star – and so is Marine Nationale.
The enthusiasm is infectious. He might not make it back onto the bankers' team this time around, but a return to the winners’ enclosure in four weeks' time remains a distinct possibility.
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