WILLIE Mullins and Paul Townend have wasted no time in getting a winner on the board at Aintree, with Impaire Et Passe proving too good in the EBC Group Manifesto Novices' Chase on Thursday.

Gidleigh Park and Bryan Carver took the field of nine along with Croke Park and Rubaud hot on his heels, and Impaire Et Passe further back on the outside, stalking all the way.

Nothing much changed until after the fourth last when Boombawn began to make a move and Croke Park started dropping away, Paul Townend all the while pressing the seven-year-old winner for an effort.

The Diamond Boy gelding jumped the final ditch in a line with Boombawn and Rubaud before sweeping past leader Gidleigh Park and easily accounting for that rival by a length and a quarter.

Good jumping

Winning jockey Paul Townend said: “His jumping was really, really good. Even when I won on him earlier this season he jumped brilliantly. He hit a flat spot that day but he came alive and showed the spark out there today that he did as a novice hurdler, when winning here and at Sandown.

“I was in front sooner than I wanted to be, but the last fence is a lot closer to the line here. The cheekpieces seem to be working well.”

Anthony Bromley, racing manager to the owners Simon Munir & Isaac Souede, said: “He would have gone to Cheltenham if that race hadn’t been changed to a handicap, so they did us a favour. He didn’t run well enough at the Dublin Racing Festival in fairness, so we thought we’d bypass Cheltenham anyway and freshen him up for this.

“We discussed cheekpieces at Leopardstown, but it’s not something Willie normally does. He’s got a lot of class, but he doesn’t do a lot in front and Paul will probably say he got there soon enough, but the horse took him there.

“That’s a great start to the week. We’ve got eight runners this week including El Fabiolo and Matata in the Melling tomorrow, and then Blue Lord and James Du Berlais in the Topham, a nice horse in the bumper on Saturday and of course Intense Raffles in the big one.”

Sidestep

Simon Munir himself added: “We decided to bypass Cheltenham and bring him here fresh and it’s paid off. He jumped beautifully and aul had him in a nice position all the way through the race."

George and Carol Eyre, owners of runner-up Gidleigh Park, said: “That was very exciting - he’s run so well and there’s lots more to come from him. He’s a Gold Cup horse of the future! We’re delighted.”

Nicky Henderson, trainer of third-placed Jango Baie, said: “The other two hadn’t gone to Cheltenham, so he did very, very well to come back like that, and he’s finished very strongly. I think we’ll be starting over three miles next season. I had him in the three-miler here, and tossed up between the two races - very difficult decision - tossing a coin.

“He’ll be exciting over three miles - he’s finished every time, he’s coming home very strongly. He just hits a little bit of a flat spot and then he’s got a bit to do. At Cheltenham he was flat out all the way; he travelled today. That had to be a hard race at Cheltenham, and he’s done very well to come back and run like that. We’ve just got to see as the week goes on - they’ve all been there. He’s run really well, so I’m not panicking yet.”