Solness makes all to bag another Grade 1 at Leopardstown with favourite Gaelic Warrior well beaten

It's time to wake up to Solness. The artist formerly known as a handicapper is now firmly in the Champion Chase frame following yet another exhibition from the front, this time under Danny Mullins.

If you thought it was a fluke in the fog at Christmas when he won his first Grade 1 at 28-1, you know now it wasn't. This is a serious operator at the top level and the only one able to land a glove on him at any stage was the 2023 Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Marine Nationale.

Indeed, it looked as though Sean Flanagan might have Solness cooked coming down to the last as he eroded a dozen-length deficit down to about a length, but that was as close as he ever got. The winner is a tough cookie and getting by him has become a very arduous task.

The strange showing by Gaelic Warrior, who was never sighted at any stage, combined with the early departure of El Fabiolo, means Jonbon is now odds-on with most firms for the Champion Chase and no bigger than evens anywhere.

Solness is a standout 12-1 with Betfair, but 10-1 generally and Joseph O'Brien had no hesitation in suggesting he will make them all go in that, too.

"I could see him running a big race in the Champion Chase," O'Brien said. "He’ll jump and go and they’ll have to come and get to him to beat him. That’s the way he likes to run."

He went on to add: "Aggressive tactics worked, he jumped brilliantly and I thought what he did from the last to the line showed real tenacity because he was there to be shot at the whole way.

"He has a will to win, and Danny got a breather into him between the third-last and the second-last and that was probably the winning of the race in the end."

Asked whether Solness had surprised him, the trainer replied: "We went to Listowel and he won a big handicap chase with a lot of weight and we thought that was a good pot to pick up with him. Then we ended up in Graded races and he just keeps going forward."

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With JJ Slevin on El Fabiolo, Mullins once again proved to be the supersub and he thinks Solness should get plenty of praise for what he is doing.

The winning jockey said: "He’s a top horse and deserves his credit. What he did all the way down the back, that’s the buzz a jockey wants and what a buzz I got off Solness here.

"I couldn’t hear fences flicking behind me and I was able, around the fourth-last, to fill up a little bit but then I wanted to keep pressing on when I had the lads sucked into a battle. I could hear a horse, I didn’t know what it was. Marine Nationale put in a great run, coming for me off the bend, but to be fair my lad was tough. Not many can maintain that in Leopardstown and he did."

Solness: winner of the Dublin Chase under Danny MullinsCredit: Patrick McCann

Flanagan thinks you will see a different Marine Nationale in the Champion Chase.

He said: "On a bit of better ground, with the hill at Cheltenham, he'll be a better horse again. I thought I might get to Solness coming down to the last but the ground is probably just a bit softer than he would ideally like. He's run an absolute cracker."

The same could not be said of Gaelic Warrior. He was never really any closer than the 14 lengths he was beaten at the line and Paddy Power eased him to 9-2 (from 5-2) for the Champion Chase afterwards.

There was no stopping Solness here. It's about time we cottoned on to the fact that he's a proper Champion Chase contender, isn't it?

BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase (Cheltenham, March 12)
Sponsors: 4-5 Jonbon, 5 Gaelic Warrior, Il Est Francais, 7 Energumene, Banbridge, 8 Solness, 10 El Fabiolo, Marine Nationale, 25 bar.

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