Seamus Mullins’
rolled back the years to reclaim his title in the Virgin Bet
Handicap Chase at
.
The 11-year-old won the contest under
in 2023, striking at 18-1 and going on to finish second in the bet365 Gold Cup on his next start to wrap up his season.
His form has waxed and waned since, however, with his second-placed Cheltenham run when wearing blinkers last April his only placed effort in several runs in the meantime.
The blinkers were applied again on his return to Town Moor, where he was ridden by Best again as a 33-1 shot.
The early spring ground seemed to suit the gelding, who travelled well throughout and looked to be enjoying himself around the three-mile-two-furlong trip.
He took up the lead four fences for home and clearly was not going to be passed, holding off all challengers to come home two and three-quarter lengths ahead of 4-1 favourite The Kniphand.
“It’s a good fillip to the yard, we’ve had a bit of an in-and-out season but we’re coming back to form,” said Mullins.
“It’s just nice to come back and do it again for Besty, he loves it.
“The handicapper will have a bit of a say after today, which is fair enough, but he’d have to take his chance at Sandown again.
“We fiddled around last year and went to that race at Cheltenham and that was when he showed us that the spring ground is really what he needs, so he’ll definitely get an entry.
“This was the first bit of decent ground we could find and we made our minds up at Christmas that we’d try to come here.
“He came with plenty of petrol in the tank, we’ve dropped down the handicap but for good reason because he wasn’t running well.
“We’ve just minded our horses and ticked over and hopefully in the spring we’ll be repaid for that bit of patience.”