Fakir D'Oudairies claimed a hardfought win in the Betfair Ascot Chase in which only four finished.
The Irish raider was sent off the 9/4 favourite for the Grade One contest and turning in was travelling strongly alongside the gallant runner-up Two For Gold (25/1) with the rest beaten off.
When he got in too close to the second last it gave the second valuable momentum but the winner was in front again going to the final fence and he ran on strongly to win by a length-and-three-quarters.
"I'd like to dedicate this to my Uncle, Michael Walsh, who died earlier in the week, he was a great man. This one was for him," the winning rider told ITV Racing.
"They went a proper gallop on the ground and he didn't travel early. He made a mess of the second last but is very tough, stuck his head out and battled."
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Fanion D'Estruval (9/2) was the only one to make headway from the rear of the field into third.
Betfair and Paddy Power cut the winner to 7/1 from 12s for the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham.
Winning trainer Joseph O’Brien said: “They were tough conditions. Mark gave him a good ride. It was a pretty gruelling race and a long way up the straight, but delighted to win a Grade One.
“I thought turning in we had every chance but we were a bit slow at the second last – he got a bit tight into it – and then it was really a slog from there. But our horse is tough and he fought all the way to the line.
“He is very good at his best. He was a good juvenile hurdler, went chasing then and he has never really run a bad race, to be fair to the horse. He has been solid and consistent and he has come up a little bit short at times, but he always turns up and runs with his heart on his sleeve.
“Allaho is as good a two-and-a-half-miler as there probably is around at the moment and we have come up against him a few times, but when you have a Grade One horse, you meet the best around. It was nice today that we had a chance to run in a Grade One where we wouldn’t meet Allaho.
“Cheltenham and Aintree are the two most logical places from here – we’ll see how he comes out of today’s race and the decision will be made about Cheltenham closer to the time,” O’Brien added.
“He had a pretty tough race today, so we will see how he comes home, but those are the logical races for him.
“We sent them over on Thursday, but that would have been when we travelled anyway. He travelled a bit earlier on Thursday than what he would have under normal circumstances because of the weather. It didn’t interrupt our preparation too much.”
David Bass said of the runner-up: "I'm really proud of him and it was another career best I think.
"I thought maybe going to the last I might just outbattle him again but the winner is a very good horse. My horse is so consistent and tries very hard."
