claimed the notable scalp of Marine Nationale in the Barberstown Castle Chase at
.
Dual Grade One-winning hurdler Marine Nationale – so brilliant in landing the 2023 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham – was the 8-11 favourite on his first start since disappointing in the Irish Arkle at Leopardstown in February.
Quilixios is also a Cheltenham Festival winner, though, having landed the Triumph Hurdle four years ago, and had the majority of his rivals on the stretch from before the home turn in the Grade Three feature under a positive ride from Darragh O’Keeffe.
Marine Nationale did his best to keep tabs on the leader in the straight, but it was clear between the final two fences he was struggling to bridge the gap and in the end Henry de Bromhead’s Quilixios (7-2) passed the post with seven and a half lengths in hand.
“That was great, I’m delighted with that. He jumped brilliant and I thought Darragh was brilliant on him,” said De Bromhead.
“It’s lovely to see him back to form again, he’s got a lot of class. He was very good here back in January and it’s nice to get him back.
“He loves jumping and Darragh said at the first one down the back he couldn’t see anything so he just squeezed up and he took off, he winged it. I love that with those two-milers, it’s always good to watch.”
Paddy Power cut Quilixios to 50-1 from 100-1 for the Queen Mother Champion Chase and eased Marine Nationale to 16-1 from 9-1 for the same race.
On future plans for his charge, De Bromhead added: “We said we’d come here and just see where we were and obviously we’ll look at all those better races now. We’ll get him home and see.
“I think he goes on any ground, he won on very testing ground here in January. I worried that the ground might just be a bit too good for him, but he seemed to love it.
“There is the Tingle Creek or the race at Leopardstown over Christmas.”