Can Solness make all in the Champion Chase?

The Joseph O'Brien-trained Solness has emerged as the surprise package in the two-mile chasing division this season and heads to the Queen Mother Champion Chase as the wildcard.

Solness has won back-to-back Grade 1s in Ireland since Christmas with aggressive front-running tactics, but can he do it a third time on the biggest stage of them all? We look at the state of play in the two-mile Championship event at The Festival.

Solness the slow burner

Solness has made a rather sudden and unexpected transition to the big time after taking plenty of time to find his niche.

He won a couple of low-key events at Leopardstown and Tipperary in the spring of 2023 not long after arriving from France to join Joseph O'Brien, but there were few clues about what has transpired since Christmas.

He was third at the Dublin Racing Festival in a Listed handicap chase last season, down the field in the Grand Annual at Cheltenham off a mark of 149 and then fourth behind Pinkerton at Punchestown.

After a break, he never posed a threat in the Galway Plate in July as Noel Meade's Pinkerton won again, but things have altered dramatically since then.

He won a decent handicap at Listowel in September and scored the following month in a low-grade hurdles race at Sligo.

The Clonmel Oil and Fortria Chases eluded him as Saint Sam and Found A Fifty took the honours, while his first outing in Grade 1 company was a 25-length fourth behind Jonbon in the Tingle Creek at Sandown in December.

Keen for the big time

In the wake of that Sandown defeat, where he beat only one rival home, Solness was a 28/1 chance stepping out at Leopardstown for a Grade 1 at Christmas.

This time, rider JJ Slevin made more use of his horse, as Solness went to the front and clear in the early stages and pressed the advantage from a long way out.

Favourite Gaelic Warrior couldn't get him back, with Marine Nationale behind in third and Dinoblue leading home the rest at wide intervals.

For some, the way the race unfolded with Solness pinching a handsome lead made it unsatisfactory in terms for a form line to take forward. Then he went and did it again at the Dublin Racing Festival.

This time Danny Mullins was on board and he helped Solness build a lead early which they never relinquished.

Marine Nationale closed to within a length at the last, but Solness had something left to give and repelled him on the flat, with Gaelic Warrior a distant and never dangerous third.

It was a statement win, one that tees him up for a crack at the Champion Chase and justifiably so. Perhaps the only surprise is he is not the shortest-priced Irish runner behind odds-on favourite Jonbon.

Tactics now clear for Champion Chase

"I could see him running a big race in the Champion Chase," O'Brien said at the DRF. "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."

Plenty of debate was sparked after his Dublin Chase win, with pundits left to ponder if he had been 'allowed' an easy lead.

Analysis has revealed Mullins' partner ran hard from fence two to fence five in the race, establishing his lead and working to do so, with the likes of Marine Nationale, Gaelic Warrior, Quilixios, Gentleman De Mee and Captain Guinness unable to match that early pace with any degree of comfort.

When it came to the business end, many anticipated Solness would come back to the field, but in reality he sustained the gallop. When Marine Nationale did arrive, he found more to win.

His Irish rivals have major questions over them now. Gaelic Warrior may even divert to the Ryanair Chase after two listless runs, while Marine Nationale must prove he can see it out.

Jonbon has been ridden positively this season in his races, but not at the pace Solness is going. Nicky Henderson's star could, in theory, benefit from taking a lead off Solness, but any temptation to lie up with the pacesetter could prove cut-throat in the finish or, worse, find a race-ending fault in his jumping.

It makes for a very interesting collision and it should be much closer than when they met at Sandown in the winter.

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