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Owner-trainer Barry Connoll is ‘still a little bit in the dark’ after Marine Nationale’s disappointing run in the Grade 1 Irish Arkle.

Winner of last year's Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, Marine Nationale attracted considerable support for the Arkle Trophy following his easy chasing debut at Leopardstown during the Christmas meeting.

He was expected to stamp his authority on the two mile novice chasing division in the Irish Arkle at the Dublin Racing Festival, but struggled to make his presence felt in the closing stages and faded to fifth.

"He seems fine this morning, but we'll have to run a lot of further tests on him this week, so we won't know until later in the week what the full clinical picture of him is," said Connoll.

"He's sound anyway and seems to come out of the race OK, so we're still a little bit in the dark.

"I'd say the ground definitely was harder going than it was at Christmas. They had no fresh ground, so it was probably tacky, holding ground, which wouldn't be ideal.

"We just don't know (what happened), but the horse had an off day and it won't be until later in the week when we've finalised our checks on him."

Connell is hopeful that a return to Cheltenham could spark better form in his star chaser.

"Our intention is to just put a line through and head on to Cheltenham," he added.

"He obviously showed a lot of speed in the Supreme last year, beating the winner from yesterday (Il Etait Temps) and Facile Vega (finished third on Saturday).

"Hopefully we'll get spring ground at Cheltenham and he's proven his liking for the track there.

"All these horses can get beat at some stage and unfortunately that was the case yesterday. We'll just see if anything else emerges."