Klepht picked up a nice bonus on his way to the Kerry National when landing the novice hurdle at Killarney this afternoon.

Paul Townend produced the 11/1 outsider of the field to challenge at the third last and he battled it out with Hash Brown from the next. His rival looked to have the advantage going to the final flight but a mistake handed Klepht the advantage. The nine-year-old stuck on well in the closing stages to prevail by half a length as Hash Brown tried to rally.

15/8 favourite Shield stayed on for third, without threatening, three-and-a-quarter lengths back.

"He's a brilliant jumper and on his chase rating he was entitled to win,” said Mullins afterwards.

“He ran too free in Roscommon last Monday and blew up so we decided to drop in today.

“His main target is the Kerry National but whether we still have anything up our sleeves off a rating of 141 remains to be seen but it's the obvious target.

“It was grand to pick up something like this in the meantime.”