The Real Whacker produced a tremendous display from the front to land the bet365 Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby.
Winner of the Brown Advisory at the Cheltenham Festival two years ago, not everything went as trainer Patrick Neville would have hoped last season, including when pulled up in the Gold Cup.
He returned for this campaign in the Kerry National at Listowel in September, where he had the misfortune of unseating Sam Twiston-Davies.
Immediately disputing matters in front with Conflated on this occasion, he eventually took the outright lead, giving a bold sight under Brian Hughes, who was riding the eight-year-old for the first time.
Former winner and runner-up Bravemansgame was the 11-10 market leader to regain his crown and loomed up ominously for Harry Cobden.
But The Real Whacker (5-1) continued to jump away and ultimately saw off the favourite, with another fine leap at the last sealing a three-and-a-half-length victory.
Neville said: “That was brilliant, I’m delighted to get him back. I never wrote him off, some people did, but we just had no luck last year. Every time we went to run him the sky opened the night before.
“I had him fairly right going to Listowel and we were just unfortunate he unseated there.
“We were happy coming here today with the (good) ground. I don’t think I’ll run him again on heavy as we did it a few days last year when we were just unlucky the rain kept coming before he ran. The ground is the key to him.”
The Real Whacker finished a creditable fourth in the King George at Kempton last Christmas before finishing second in the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham in January. Both races could be on the agenda again before a potential second tilt at Gold Cup glory in the spring.
“We won’t go to Haydock for the Betfair Chase, we’ll go for the King George maybe, the Cotswold Chase again and hopefully then the Gold Cup. It’s all ground dependent,” the trainer added.
“We’ve recently moved yards and we’ve never had better facilities. We’re a neighbour of Karl Burke and Jedd O’Keeffe and Ed Bethell and we’re getting on great.
“Our landlady is Sally Hall and her uncle was Charlie Hall, so it’s great to be going back home with the prize. We’ll take her for a drink maybe tonight and I might get a discount on the rent!”
Yorkshire-based three-time champion jockey Hughes was remarkably riding in the Charlie Hall for the first time and dedicated the victory to his close friend Graham Lee, who suffered life-changing injuries in a fall at Newcastle last year.
Hughes said: “I started in Howard Johnson’s nearly 20 years ago and Graham (Lee) won this race on Grey Abbey (in 2004). I said to him yesterday if I win it I’ll dedicate it to him.
“I’ve never ridden the horse before, but he’s been around plenty and I just thought I’d kick him out of the gate as he’s a good stayer and just don’t move on him and let him jump.
“He’s a Cheltenham Festival and Grade One winner and they don’t lose their ability overnight.
“It was a long last furlong, but I’m glad we got to the line in front.”
While Bravemansgame finished best of the rest in second, reigning champion Cobden was clearly disappointed with what he felt was a below-par performance.
He said: “He’s long way off his best visually. The winner is rated 157 so officially we’ve run to 153, which is a long way below his mark (166).
“We’ll see what Paul (Nicholls) says, but he’ll have headgear on next time if I had my way anyway.”
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