Native Upmanship profited from the decision of trainer Arthur Moore to bypass the previous afternoon's Irish Grand National when justifying favouritism in the Powers Gold Cup at Fairyhouse.
Fourth to Lord Noelie in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase at Cheltenham last month, Native Upmanship was left to do a virtual solo before eventually defeating the only other finisher Sunrise Special by a distance.
'Native Upmanship learned a lot at Cheltenham. He was positive at his fences and there was no point in hanging around hoping somebody else would make the gallop,' explained winning rider Conor O'Dwyer.
Montana Glen was already out of touch when refusing at the eighth fence, Rathbawn Prince unseated his rider a couple of fences later and Slaney Native which had tried to match strides throughout with the favourite began to make mistakes as he came under pressure.
The lone English raider Sunrise Special was clearly outclassed, but Simon Burrough concentrated on completing and Somerset trainer Pat Rodford's first Irish runner eventually got around in his own time to make the long trip to the Dublin course worthwhile.
Native Upmanship, a 5-4 shot, is likely to reappear in the Bradstock Novice Chase over the same two and a half mile trip at the Punchestown Festival's opening day next Tuesday before being put away until next season.
There was a sad sequel to Sunrise Special's completion in second place as Rodford reported that the gelding's elderly London owner Frederick Landrigan had passed away on Monday night.
'Fred's family did not tell me until after the race. It's a great pity as he was a retired man who enjoyed seeing this horse run and no doubt he's looking down smiling on us,' Rodford remarked.
The Powers Gold Label Handicap Hurdle produced a much more competitive and exciting race as Killultagh Storm (10-1) got up in the dying strides to beat another 10-1 chance Brigade Charge by a head in the hands of nglish-based David Casey.
Another English-based Irish jockey among the winners was Norman Williamson, who rode a confident race on Moscow Retreat to take the RFL Steel Hurdle for Limerick trainer Michael Hourigan.
Ready To Rumble from the Noel Chance stable did best of the English challengers for the Goffs Land Rover Bumper, but had to settle for third money behind Winning Jenny (16-1), trained by Francis Flood.
