Moscow Express, the horse who caused his trainer Frances Crowley a sleepless night worrying about his jumping, provided a 14 to 1 daydream when beating Florida Pearl in yesterday's Powers Gold Label Tote Gold Cup.
In fact the concerns about his jumping were so widespread that his rider Barry Geraghty was bet £20 by the former champion Charlie Swan he wouldn't even make it around.
But not only did the current champion jockey manage to get the nine-year-old around, he did it the hard way by making most of the running and then proving too strong for Florida Pearl after an eye-to-eye battle for much of the race.
Instead it was last year's winner, Commanche Court, who was let down by his jumping when making a huge error at the sixth that Ruby Walsh did well to survive.
Moscow Express and Florida Pearl dominated throughout and the 8 to 11 favourite looked all set for victory when taking over at the fourth last following an unusually rare Mosocw Express error.
However, Florida Pearl didn't kick clear, something trainer Willie Mullins put down to a lack of a recent run and with the benefit of yesterday's race Mullins is considering a possible expedition to Auteuil for the French Champion Hurdle.
"I'm half thinking of France as he'd had such a quiet season. The first and the third (Dorans Pride) have had a recent run but we couldn't even get away for a gallop due to the foot-and-mouth restrictions and while he was real well, that might have made the difference today," Mullins said.
Moscow Express will also be kept on the move during the summer but on home fields after a big race success that topped his 1999 Galway Plate in value.
"He doesn't normally jump as well out of soft ground but he decided to put it in today," smiled Crowley. "I hardly slept a wink last night because he frequently takes bad falls in the soft but he's so game and is in brilliant form at the moment."
Dorans Pride just failed to catch Florida Pearl for the runner-up spot and his trainer, Michael Hourigan, said: "My horse and the winner are just two iron horses!"
The John Magnier colours, successful on Ned Kelly on Tuesday, picked up their second Grade One novice hurdle of the week as Colonel Braxton justified odds-on by a couple of lengths in the Menolly Homes Novice Hurdle.
The Dessie Hughes-trained horse had to battle to get the better of Be My Royal and Risk Accessor in the closing stages but Hughes explained: "He had to be at an absolute peak to beat Risk Accessor who has improved."
Colonel Braxton is set to go chasing next season and Cashmans didn't waste any time outlining his Cheltenham potential by slapping a 10 to 1 SunAlliance Chase quote on him.
Ireland's top hunter Sheltering is set to run next in the Irish Grand National on Sunday week but the 2 to 7 favourite had to really battle to land yesterday's Champion Hunter Chase.
Philip Fenton's mount made a number of serious mistakes but trainer Edward O'Grady was willing to blame the ground and added: "He would have an 18lb penalty in the Joseph O'Reilly which is really unfair so I would like to run in the Irish National. If he was placed, he'd get a lot of prize-money and stay a hunter next season and if he won, it would be super!"
Yesterday's crowd of 6,500 bet £1,293,229 with the bookmakers and £208,966 with the Tote. The figures at the second day of Punchestown last year were £1.7 million with the bookies and £588,130 with the Tote.
