The Willie Mullins-trained Ile Atlantique put in a professional display to win the Grade 2 Racing Post Novice Chase at Naas.
Ridden by Paul Townend, the seven-year-old was backing up his chasing debut success at Navan in early-December and made amends for a narrow defeat when beaten a neck by Readin Tommy Wrong on the same card in the Lawlor's Of Naas Novice Hurdle at the same venue 12 months ago.
Never far off the pace, the Tony Bloom-owned Ile Atlantique jumped well in the main and stayed wide coming into the home straight.
Easy-to-back Firefox (7/2) made several jumping mistakes and couldn't quite get on terms with the 13/8 winner, who ultimately found another gear after the last and drew away to score by five lengths.
The disappointment of the race was 11/10 favourite Inthepocket, who was sticky at his fences throughout and found little for pressure under Rachael Blackmore in the straight.
Mullins said: “His efficient jumping won it for him. He loves that ground and from an early stage you could see he was jumping more efficiently than everything else.
“He’s matured a lot and got stronger than last year, which is a big help, and fences might just be the making of him. Paul says when he sees a fence, he measures it himself and it just seems natural to him.”
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Paddy Power cut the winner's odds to 8/1 from 20/1 for the Arkle on day one of the Cheltenham Festival in March and the Irish equivalent at next month’s Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown could be next on his agenda.
“We just have to keep that improvement in him for the season. His season tapered off a bit last year and maybe it was because of the drying ground in the spring,” Mullins added.
“He’s one that we can now go two miles or two-and-a-half. We’ll look at the Dublin Racing Festival and see which direction we go.
“Majborough would be in the two-mile race (Irish Arkle) and maybe he could go along with him. We have a few for the two-mile-five-furlong race, which would look the place where Ballyburn would go."
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