Danny Mullins earned the plaudits aboard the brave Flooring Porter as he retained his Stayers' Hurdle crown.
Gavin Cromwell's stable star led from start to finish and crossed the line with a bit to spare.
Sent off at 4-1, the champion stayer's rider saved vital energy for the final climb – and the pair held a two-and-three-quarter length advantage at the line.
Thyme Hill pipped 2019 winner of the race Paisley Park for second.
Cromwell said: "That was magical. He's a freak of a horse. What a ride.
"Danny was very cool coming down the hill. He stacked them up, he knew he had plenty of horse. It was just brilliant. He's not much to look at but my god he's some engine."
The winner, who scored by a smaller margin than the previous year, jumped well on his return to the Gloucestershire venue.
Many challengers loomed up, but Mullins was praised by racing fans for intelligently preserving the horse's reserves for the closing stages on the soft ground.
Owners The Flooring Porter Syndicate waved their scarves in the air as their big race hero returned to the winners' enclosure.
Mullins told ITV Racing: “Everything went to plan. Big credit has to go to Gavin Cromwell – I love the horse but he’s quirky. His training is the reason we’re back here today again, Gavin’s done a fantastic job with this lad all year.
“I wasn’t too worried about the preliminaries, the more he gets into the season, the less gas is in his system. Gavin brought him over a few days early, he was a little bubbly one or two mornings but this morning we were very happy with him. He was relaxed and showing a spark again. It’s funny going into a race at Cheltenham with such confidence in the horse, but we believed in him.”
Flooring Porter is 5-1 with Paddy Power to complete a Stayers' Hurdle hat-trick at Cheltenham in 2023.
