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Leading novice chaser Marine Nationale has been ruled out of the Cheltenham Festival after suffering a ‘suspensory strain’.

Winner of the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Festival last year, the Barry Connell-trained gelding was widely supported for the Arkle Trophy following an impressive chasing debut at Leopardstown over Christmas. Although he was a disappointing fifth of six in the Grade 1 Irish Arkle Novice Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival in February, connections attributed the defeat to poor ground and were hopeful that a return to Cheltenham would see the seven-year-old bounce back.

"He basically needs six weeks off and he has got a minor suspensory strain," said Connell. 

"We did our final piece of work with him on Saturday and were thrilled with him – it was as good a piece of work he has done in the last year and a half.

"Everything was all ready for Cheltenham and he was all ready to go, but we obviously don't ride out on Sunday and came in this morning and the horse was lame.

"He has never had a lame step in his life before, so we just put him to one side for the vets to look at him. They went through him in detail and it's the best possible result we could have hoped for because it's basically liked a pulled muscle in human terms.

"It is in the suspensory, not a tendon and it's not a tear, it's basically a little shadow.

"If we had not caught it and gone on with it, things could have been worse, so the vets say if he gets six weeks' rest, he will be 100 per cent."