Il Etait Temps powered over the line in the Queen Mother Champion Chase to earn trainer Willie Mullins his third win of day two at Cheltenham Festival.
Majborough was the odds-on favourite to claim victory in the big race of the day but a poor jumping display made it an impossible victory.
A mistake at the final fence almost cost Il Etait Temps the win, but jockey Paul Townend steered him over the line at the Festival’s first Ladies Day in five years.
“There was a lot of work put into this horse after Ascot so I have a lot of people to thank,” Townend told ITV Racing. “It shows how tough this lad is. He’s such a courageous horse again today. He was flat as a pan everywhere.
“I wasn’t going to force him but he just found his rhythm.”
Mullins told BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra: “Out of the corner of my eye I could see Paul Townend thinking ‘now we have a horse race’.
“He started to get confident and he planned his move around the last bend.”
Libberty Hunter, priced at 50-1, and Sir Alex Ferguson’s horse, L’eau Du Sud, finished third.
The first winner of the day for Mullins came in the opening race with 11-1 shot King Rasko Grey powering over the finish line.
Act of Innocence, ridden by Nico de Boinville, followed up in second.
Mullins was “disappointed” with his horses in Tuesday’s Supreme Hurdle, but King Rasko Grey’s “form worked out”.
He told BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra: “We were all disappointed with our horses in the Supreme, but his form worked out. The day we bought him from the sales, he looked like a really smooth mover.
“I am very happy. When I saw them here on Monday, my worry was they looked too well.
“I don’t think I have seen my team on the gallop look so well, but they are racing well.”
It was a Mullins one-two in the Novices’ Chase with a brilliant jumping display from 11-1 chance Kitzbuhel allowing him to hold off the challenge of 7-2 shot Final Demand.
Jockey Harry Cobden labelled Kitzbuhel a “phenomenal little horse”.
He told ITV: “He’s braver than I am, this little chap. He’s a phenomenal horse.
“He was brilliant today, looking right the whole way, so that’s why I kept him in the middle. Everywhere I asked him, he delivered. He’s very tough.”
