Willie Mullins' Stattler took won his second chase with a game performance in the Naas Racecourse Business Club Novice Chase at the Irish track.
The' seven-year-old oout-ran Farouk D'Alene after a prolonged battle to take the Grade 3 races by one and a quarter lengths in the hands of Paul Townend.
Stattler's stablemate En Beton did the groundwork but he gave way after jumping the third-last fence. Stattler and Farouk D'Alene fought out the finish, with the 11-10 favourite winning the day as his stamina kicked in at the business end of the three-mile-one-furlong test.
The leading pair put a clear 17 lengths between themselves and Vanillier in third.
Mullins said: "I was hoping he'd jump better. He was a bit novicey but I suppose it was a big step up in class from his first win (over fences) and it told there.
"He'll learn a lot and with the way he jumped, he needed the three miles and will probably have no trouble going further.
"It was a fight the whole way up the straight and he only asserted in the last 100 yards but I'm happy he did that.
"I'd imagine that will probably put him into the National Hunt Chase in Cheltenham. A longer trip going a bit steadier will suit him."
