"He's a lovely horse, who jumps exceptionally well for a juvenile, " McNamara said afterwards. "He'll be entered for the Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham, as well as the Triumph Hurdle."

The trainer and jockey combined to win the same race at Punchestown last year with Strangely Brown, who went on to Grade 1 success at the French track of Auteuil, and McNamara is hoping that Marhaba Million can improve sufficiently to emulate this achievement.

The mighty Limestone Lad may have been retired, but his close relation, You Sir, rekindled memories of the Bowe family's great hurdler when turning the first division of the INH Stallion Owners EBF Maiden Hurdle into a procession.

Partnered by amateur Noel McParlan, who was registering his first success over hurdles, You Sir made all for an unchallenged 12-length win over Haydens First. Division 2 of the race went to an equally convincing winner in the JP McManus-owned Clew Bay Cove. The well-supported evens favourite is trained by Colm Murphy, who reported Feathard Lady to be "an awful lot better, " adding that "next week will tell us an awful lot.

We're lucky she doesn't take a lot of work, and Cheltenham has by no means been ruled out."

Over in Warwick, Ruby Walsh made a triumphant return from injury as he landed an impressive double. The ever-improving Eurotrek took the feature race at 6/1 for the Naas jockey ahead of Sir Rembrandt and Control Man after Walsh had earlier ridden Be Be King to a Novices' Hurdle victory at 2/1 favourite.