Solness strike keeps the Joseph O’Brien bandwagon rolling at Leopardstown

Solness rewarded the faith of connections who supplemented him into the Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase at Leopardstown to give Joseph O’Brien a second Grade One success of the Christmas period.

Just 24 hours on from watching Banbridge win the King George VI Chase at Kempton, O’Brien was back home in Ireland to witness the 28-1 scorer lead his rivals a merry dance.

Well beaten behind Jonbon in the Tingle Creek last time out, J J Slevin took no prisoners on the six-year-old and after an early skirmish for the lead, was soon out in front charting a wide passage.

One by one, the big hitters like Gaelic Warrior, Found A Fifty, Dinoblue and Marine Nationale were sending out distress signals, as Solness maintained his advantage at the head of affairs.

Gaelic Warrior, having his first run of the season, did stay on past Marine Nationale to finish second, but was still three and three-quarter lengths behind the victor.

Solness was introduced into the Champion Chase betting at 25-1 by Paddy Power, while Gaelic Warrior was pushed out to 5-1 from 7-2. Jonbon was tightened at the head of the betting to 2-1 from 5-2.

“I actually had this lad in the mile-and-a-half maiden at Dundalk last Friday!” said O’Brien.

“Ground is important to him. I spoke to J J before and he felt that he’d go wide and find the driest strip of ground that he could find.

“He jumped fantastic and looked to be going very smooth all the way through the race.”

The winner was added to proceedings at a cost of €12,500 and O’Brien said: “I probably should have had him in it, to be honest, but the race closed before he ran very well in Navan in graded company.

“Since then, he looked like he was competing at this level, so we had a discussion the other morning and I thought