Florida Pearl returned to his best as he impressively landed the Stg£120,000 Martell Cup Chase at Aintree today.
Ireland's top chaser had disappointed his many supporters when below-par in the Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup on his latest start, but showed that run to be all wrong when scooting up from Cyfor Malta.
Sent into the lead by Barry Geraghty down the back straight, the 5-2 winner sealed his success with some impressive jumps at the third-last and second-last fences.
As his rivals blundered away their chances, Florida Pearl pulled right away to beat Cyfor Malta by 11 lengths with favourite Lord Noelie - who bled from the nose afterwards - a neck back in third.
Florida Pearl was only taken out of the Martell Grand National field at the final declaration stage when connections decided instead upon this race as his target.
But trainer Willie Mullins said that the 10-year-old could be aimed at the National next year.
"I don't regret taking him out of this year's race but he could come back next year," said Mullins. "I am thrilled to have won this race. I think he might have had a bit of an infection at Cheltenham.
"Sometimes when you have a good horse it's hard to work them hard enough and be sure just how fit they are because it's impossible to get them to really go.
"He took a while to get warmed up today and he was a bit sticky early on but then he really started to enjoy himself.
"It's probably the fastest ground he's ever raced on and it's suited him."