'His groom grabbed me to say he was second to Envoi Allen in his point-to-point'

The Neil King-trained Nearly Perfect overcame a 322-day absence and relative inexperience to land the 3m handicap chase in taking style.

Sean Quinlan looked confident throughout on the six-year-old, who had only three chase starts to his name, but needed to keep him focused in the closing stages to rebuff a valiant late surge by Chef D'Oeuvre.

A good jump at the last all but secured victory for the 9-4 favourite, and Quinlan said: "Turning in he was just looking around a bit but I just gave him a tap turning for home and he galloped to the line.