Moscow Flyer beat off rivals Well Chief and Azertyuiop to land the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on Wednesday. The 6-4 favourite, trained by Jessica Harrington and ridden by Barry Geraghty, defeated trainer Martin Pipe's Well Chief by three lengths.
Last year's winner Azertyuiop made a mistake at the water jump mid-race but dug deep to take a distant third.
Moscow Flyer, the 2003 champion, has now won all 18 races he has finished.
The 11-year-old took up the running from four fences out and controlled the run for home up the Cheltenham hill to keep Timmy Murphy's 7-2 shot Well Chief at arm's length.
Azertyuiop, ridden by Ruby Walsh, recovered his poise to beat Oneway into third, 13 lengths behind the winner but the Paul Nicholls-trained horse had never been travelling well, even before his mistake.
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"My horse ran no race. On form he should have been dividing Well Chief and Moscow Flyer, but he was never going," said Walsh.
"He made a mistake at the water but it didn't matter. It was all over for me. At that stage I could hardly keep up. Obviously I'm very disappointed, I don't know what's up with him."
Moscow Flyer received a superb reception in the winners' enclosure from the large Irish contingent at the course who welcomed home their hero.
"He's different class. He travelled brilliant, but missed the last ditch again," Geraghty said. "He winged the last - gave it a foot."
Trainer Jessica Harrington, who saw her charge unseat rider Geraghty in the race 12 months ago was delighted with the victory.
"I watched every fence. He may have been a little bit slow over the fence he fell at last year, but other than that he was foot-perfect. He was great," said Harrington.
"He was absolutely brilliant, he really was. He did it the hard way. "We had a good lead-up to the race. It was fantastic and we'll try our best to be back here in 12 months' time."
There was double success for trainer Nicky Henderson and owner Trevor Hemmings who saw Trabolgan put in a brave run to take the Royal & Sun Alliance Chase and then later Juveigneur won the Kim Muir.
Hemmings has been associated with several high-class jumpers over the years but Trabolgan, who came in at 5-1 was his first Festival winner.
"It's just such a wonderful feeling. I can now understand why everyone is cheering and waving and shouting. This is a very special moment," he said.
After their success with Arcalis in Tuesday's opener, jockey Graham Lee, trainer Howard Johnson and owner Graham Wylie were celebrating again when No Refuge took Wednesday's first race, the Royal & Sun Alliance Novices' Hurdle.
Multi-millionaire Wylie was overjoyed with his second Festival success.
"I didn't think he'd get there. At the last he had so much to do and I thought second would be a good finish, but to get there on the line was brilliant.
"I was shaking - I was so excited," he admitted.
Jockey Alan O'Keeffe claimed his first Festival victory when the Venetia Williams-trained Idole First sprung a 33-1 surprise to win the Coral Cup.
But there was no surprise in the Champion Bumper as trainer Willie Mullins recorded his fifth win in the race, thanks to Missed That, who runs in the same colours as the legendary Florida Pearl.
MMIX
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