Patrick Mullins rode his first winner at Fakenham as former Closutton resident Stattler won the William Bulwer Long Memorial Open Hunters' Chase.
Now with Faye Bramley in Lambourn, the 11-year-old ultimately won in a canter at odds of 4/6 as he stayed on strongly after stalking the leaders throughout.
Bramley said: "He had almost two years off the track and he has just taken a long time to get fit, however we thought he would still win at Hereford but he didn't.
"Now he is fit he has come back to life and we were very confident coming here today.
"It's a very sharp track around here for him, but we thought his class might just nick it and it did.
"I could see he looked a bit uncomfortable at points, but Patrick said he liked the daylight and every time he got daylight down the inside he picked up again.
"His stamina has come through and he has ended up winning well in the end.
"He will now head to Cheltenham for the St James's Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival as that was the whole idea of coming here to get qualified for that."
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