Florida Pearl became the first Irish-trained winner of the King George VI Chase for more than 25 years when powering home at Kempton Park yesterday.

Willie Mullins's charge, ridden by Adrian Maguire, gave a first-class display of jumping on his way to landing the big prize.

And the nine-year old, whose resolution in a finish has sometimes come into doubt on occasions, showed plenty of determination to hold the thrust of Best Mate and Tony McCoy in the final yards and score by three-quarters of a length.

Turning for home, only four of the eight runners were left in with a chance, and Florida Pearl who had taken the lead with a circuit left to run was at the head of the quartet.

In behind were Best Mate, Bacchanal and First Gold but a bad mistake at the third-last fence ended any chance of the French raider repeating his success of 12 months ago.

As Bacchanal failed to quicken, it looked like Best Mate, the young pretender, was going to come of age. But McCoy's mount was just unable to reel in the winner as the finishing post loomed, the pair finishing six lengths clear of Bacchanal.

Wiltshire-based Maguire had been half-way up the M1 yesterday morning when he found out he had picked up the ride.

Originally, the Meathman was due to ride at Wetherby but was then switched to Market Rasen before that meeting too was abandoned as the wintry weather took its toll.

His car, driven by friend Andrew Lejeune, then did a quick about-turn before heading back south.

Mullins confirmed that Maguire had always been high on the pecking order for the ride.

"When Ruby Walsh and Paul Carberry decided to go to Leopardstown, I immediately thought that I would like Adrian," the winning trainer said.

"I told Adrian that if he was happy with the way that the race was going, then he should go to the front. I had decided that if the horse wasn't good enough to get there, he obviously wasn't good enough to win.

"We've been to the Ericsson twice with him at this time of year and it hasn't been a lucky race for us, so last year we decided to come over and he finished second, despite making some mistakes early on." This year's race saw a noticeable improvement in Florida Pearl's jumping, something which Mullins attributed to both the change in tactics and a switch in stable routine.

"He has been ridden from off the pace for a long time and I just thought he might appreciate a change, something new," he said.