War Of Attrition made every yard of the running to complete a famous Festival double in the Guinness Gold Cup at Punchestown in the hands of Conor O'Dwyer.
Mouse Morris' Cheltenham Gold Cup hero was always travelling well in front for O'Dwyer and despite jumping slightly to the left, he comfortably accounted for Beef Or Salmon, who ran his best race for some time under Timmy Murphy.
The 4-5 favourite ran out a two-and-a-half-length winner, with Hi Cloy finishing third to complete a clean sweep of the places for trainer Michael Hourigan.
O'Dwyer had his mount smartly away and the seven-year-old enjoyed himself bowling along in front as Forget The Past and Beef Or Salmon settled in behind.
War Of Attrition set a moderate early pace before beginning to wind up the tempo approaching the 11th fence.
Forget The Past soon felt the change in pace as he clattered the 12th fence and Barry Geraghty was lucky to stay aboard.
However, War Of Attrition made no such mistake and O'Dwyer had time to look over his shoulder coming to the second-last and Morris' charge only had to be kept up to his work thereafter.
Runner-up Beef Or Salmon turned in a much-improved performance after disappointing at Aintree and Cheltenham to finish a length and a half in front of his stablemate.
Afterwards, mouse Morris said: "He was very well today and he's a horse that does everything - he stays, has pace and jumps.
"He did it the hard way although that was not the plan, it was just the way it panned out.
"He has always been a very natural jumper and was just idling in front and messing about.
"As far as next season goes, I have not even thought about it and we will only start to consider where we will go from mid-summer onwards."
O'Dwyer admitted he had been forced into making the running after conferring with his fellow riders at the start.
He said: "He did it very well and he's some horse. I got to the start and talked to the other jockeys and realised nobody was
going to make it, so I did as I didn't want it to turn into a sprint.
"When he heard anything coming up behind he picked up again and with having had quite a light season, he was able to come here in such good form."
