Majborough on The Race Lab

Il Etait Temps Wins the Champion Chase: Four Festival Runs, One Fall, and Finally a Cheltenham Winner

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Il Etait Temps won the Queen Mother Champion Chase this afternoon, beating Libberty Hunter under Paul Townend. The eight-year-old nearly threw it away with a mistake at the last fence, but held on to give Willie Mullins a third winner of the day.

The headline result is compelling enough. What makes it extraordinary is everything that came before it.

Three Festivals, No Cigar

Before today, Il Etait Temps had run at the Cheltenham Festival three times. He’d never won.

Marine Nationale's Exit Hands Majborough a Poisoned Chalice

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Marine Nationale won’t defend his Champion Chase crown. A sore neck, picked up overnight, means Barry Connell’s nine-year-old misses next Wednesday’s showpiece, and the horse who demolished Jonbon by 18 lengths last March won’t get the chance to do it again.

That leaves Majborough. Willie Mullins’ second-season chaser is now 8/11 with most firms, having strolled to a 19-length win in the Dublin Chase five weeks ago. On the face of it, that looks like a formality.

Marine Nationale's Champion Chase Defence: Can Connell's Hero Overturn a 19-Length Dublin Drubbing?

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Barry Connell doesn’t do things by half. The former stockbroker who never sat on a horse until he was 30 has built a state-of-the-art yard at Boherbaun, complete with open barns designed around airflow and horse welfare. At the centre of it all stands Marine Nationale — two-time Cheltenham Festival winner and the horse whose Champion Chase victory last March carried an emotional weight that went far beyond racing.

That 18-length romp at Prestbury Park came just weeks after the tragic death of Michael O’Sullivan, the jockey who’d been instrumental in Marine Nationale’s early career. It was a day nobody at Cheltenham will forget in a hurry.

Marine Nationale vs Majborough: The Cheltenham Rematch That Really Matters

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 09:15:00 +0000

The 19-length beating Majborough handed Marine Nationale at Leopardstown three weeks ago should have settled the Champion Chase argument. It hasn’t.

Barry Connell isn’t backing down. Neither is the formbook, which paints a very different picture when you filter for Prestbury Park.

The Cheltenham Factor

Marine Nationale is 2-for-2 at the Festival. Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2023. Champion Chase defence last March. Two Grade 1s, two wins, two different types of ground — soft for the Supreme, good to soft for the Champion Chase.