Henry de Bromhead now believes he has the key to Buckers Bridge after Ann and Alan Potts’ gelding returned to form by taking the scalp of Oscars Well in the featured Race That Stops A County “Thyestes Jan 23rd 2014” Chase.

Andrew Lynch waited until the final fence to mount his challenge, and the seven-year-old gelding finished strongly to draw clear on the run-in. Savello set the early pace until the odds-on Oscars Well took over before halfway racing quite keenly in cheek-pieces.

However Lynch played his cards last as Buckers Bridge jumped to the front at the last, and galloped away strongly on the run-in to score by three lengths.

There was a large gap of 22 lengths back to Savello in third, while the only other runner Blue Cannon trailed home well behind.

Henry de Bromhead said, “He has been hard to train, and whenever we get struck into him he falls apart. I’ve finally worked out that he’s best fresh and needs a good gap between his races.

“He is exciting and always has been but then he can put in a disappointing run. He jumped well today and Andrew thought he’d get further. It was just a case of getting him back on track and we can make plans now.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes