First Gold continued his recent renaissance with victory in the Punchestown Heineken Gold Cup today.
The Francois Doumen-trained gelding, who is owned by JP McManus, made all the running to take the Grade One event under the trainer's son, Thierry.
Only Rince Ri and Native Upmanship threw down any kind of challenge up the finishing straight but the 7-4 favourite accelerated clear to take the race by six lengths.
The 10-year-old had a barren spell of almost two years to the day before landing an impressive win at Aintree last time.
He followed up today, setting a sensible pace before moving clear with some good jumping.
However, his cause was helped when Michael Hourigan withdrew Beef Or Salmon this morning over concerns about the ground.
Harbour Pilot was also a non-runner.