The opening Monread Rated Chase at Naas today saw the Willie Mullins trained Rupert Lamb make a winning seasonal reappearance under Ruby Walsh.

The son Central Park shook off the challenge of Dylan Ross from the last for a two and three parts of a length win.

Afterwards Mullins stated “he (Rupert Lamb) seems to have improved from last year. Hopefully we can tidy up his jumping and I think he'd prefer to go faster; you could see when they quickened up he jumped better.

“He could step up in distance but I think we'll keep him at that trip at the moment, if we can find the right races for him. It was a nice start to his season.”

By Thomas Weekes, quotes from Alan Magee