Racing:Rubi Light ran out an impressive winner of the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase on Sunday. Robbie Hennessy's stable star hadn't enjoyed the rub of the green so far this season, falling with the race at his mercy on his reappearance before suffering a minor injury.
However, connections had reported him to be firing on all cylinders ahead of this two and a half mile Grade One contest which featured the race's previous two winners and they weren't disappointed.
Always to the fore under Andrew Lynch, the pair had the race run three from home as they had cruised into a seven length advantage with those behind struggling.
The outpaced Joncol began to stay on but never looked like catching the winner who had five lengths to spare at the line.
Hennessy said: "That was good. Andrew got off him and said he would come on from that. He got a little bit tired. He was a sick horse but has been working brilliantly the last two weeks. Obviously he loved the ground.
"Andrew wasn't making a mistake at the last. He gave him a kick and sent him on and he was foot perfect. I imagine he'll come out of that all right. He looks all right. We'll look at the Lexus now. It's something to look forward to. That will tell us if we have a Gold Cup horse or a Ryanair horse.
"It would be great if we had a Gold Cup horse. He's only six so he's going the right way. He's a nice horse to have and he's filling Sublimity's boots."
Sky Bet cut the winner to 10-1 from 16s for the Ryanair Chase and to 16-1 from 33s for the Gold Cup while Boylesports, Victor Chandler and Stan James all go 12-1 for the former contest.
The first two home could clash again in the Lexus over Christmas and Stan James pushed the winner out a point to 7-1 for that contest and cut Joncol from 9-2 to 4s while Boylesports left the pair unchanged at 6-1 and 5s respectively.