Once Darwins Fox got to the front after the second he led his rivals a merry dance and scooted home in the J.P. McManus Rated Hurdle for trainer Henry de Bromhead.

The eight-year-old gelding held a healthy lead over The Game Changer at the third last and try as the latter might, he couldn’t reel the winner in despite Johnny Burke’s urgings after the last. The even-money favourite went down by a length and three quarters.

The winner was returned at 7/4 after being 5/2 in the morning. Part of his price contraction though was due to Rawnaq being ruled outwith a temperature.

Winning jockey Andrew Lynch said: “Henry said to make plenty of use out of him. I don’t know what happened in Galway. He missed the break, seemed to stumble and was a bit far back. He showed his true form today.

“This was the plan after Galway and he jumped super. He’s not a bad horse, but we thought he was a very good horse as a youngster but he had niggly problems.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes