RACING: Florida Pearl put up the sort of scintillating performance at Aintree yesterday that left most who looked at it baffled as to how the Gold Cup crown continues to elude him. Only 11th three weeks previously at Cheltenham, Florida Pearl languished behind three ofyesterday's opposition that this time were left floundering in his wake in the Martell Cup.

It was a performance to rank with any of his greatest in a 25-race career but trainer Willie Mullins hinted yesterday that win number 13 may represent a peak.

"I would love to get him in that kind of shape for a Gold Cup, but maybe his chance has gone. He is not getting any younger," Mullins said.

"But we have always looked after him, and deliberately not gone to every cock fight, so we will be hoping to get an extra bit at the end. Everything has to be right to win a Gold Cup and the three times he has run in it, he has not been right.

"We found a lung infection in him after Cheltenham and I think he probably had something wrong in the Hennessy too. I was afraid of my life it might be the same today, but he was fantastic."

Barry Geraghty was riding Florida Pearl for the first time but apart from one error down the back, the partnership were foot perfect as they led from some way out.

See More Business didn't want to know from the back stretch, Cyfor Malta began to feel the effects of continuous pulling in the straight and Jim Culloty reported he was hanging on to very little when Lord Noelie briefly threatened. His mount was subsequently found to have bled.

"The horse came alive up the back straight. Willie had told me not to delay and go on with him but the way he jumped was unreal," said Geraghty, who will also team up with Mullins for Alexander Banquet in tomorrow's National.

"I think Alexander Banquet likes good ground and Tracy (Gilmour) who has been riding him in the mornings here has said he has been really stretching," Mullins reported.

Punchestown's Heineken Cup could figure for Florida Pearl next. In the even longer term, an intriguing Aintree option for next year was proposed by the trainer."The National is a race everybody would like to win and if we thought we had a chance we might go for it," he said.

Who knows, but the greatest stamina test of all might yet give Florida Pearl the ultimate opportunity to silence the doubters.

The Limerick winner Find The King started favourite for the four-year-old hurdle but never figured and it was left to Newhall to run best of the Irish in third behind Quazar. "The ground was quicker than I wanted," reported Newhall's rider Fran Flood.

Quazar completed a 577 to 1 double for Jonjo O'Neill as the Irish-born trainer won the opening hurdle with the 33 to 1 Sudden Shock. "It's not that much of a surprise to us," said O'Neill. "He has had major problems with his wind but since a soft palate operation he has been going well."

Sheltering emerged best of the Irish in the Fox Hunters' over the big fences with a fourth behind the Paul Nicholls-trained Torduff Express.

It was a memorable triumph for rider Polly Gundry, who had flown back from the United States where she rode in a Maryland Cup Trial over timber.

Typically, Tony McCoy had the last word with Classified in the concluding contest and it helped him break another record, this time the 271-winner European mark that had been held by the German, Peter Schiergen.