Stamina came to the fore as Home By The Lee made it fifth time lucky in the Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.
In a fascinating contest, JJ Slevin aboard the 11-year-old urgently asked his mount to move on to Hewick’s tail moving down hill but as he rounded the turn for home the pursuers were queuing up to make their challenge, with Home By The Lee already giving maximum effort.
The eye was drawn in particular to Dan Skelton’s Kabral Du Mathan under a motionless Harry Skelton as he hit the front jumping the final obstacle.
However, Home By The Lee was a determined rival and as Kabral du Mathran’s stride shortened, the 33-1 shot rallied bravely to see off the fast-finishing Ballyburn by a length and a quarter.
O'Brien said: "What a horse, he’s never taken a lame step in his life.
"We came here just hoping for a good run and it was a fantastic ride from JJ
"It’s great for Sean O’Driscoll (owner) and his family, they bred him and he’s an 11-year-old now, they’ve been with him all the way through thick and thin.
"He’s tough as nails, it’s a huge team effort from everyone at home and like I said, he got a great ride off JJ.
"We’ve raced him more often this year than what we normally have, we said we’d just get him running whereas in the past we’ve just kept him very fresh so maybe that helped him."
O’Brien is a former champion Flat jockey in Ireland, who has already won the Melbourne Cup on the Flat and the King George over jumps.
He went on: "The Cheltenham Festival is special, it’s just great to be here with good horses that can run well and have chances – to have a winner makes it even more special.
"He loves his job, that’s how we keep him sweet.
"When he went novice chasing he lost his way a little bit and had a few disappointing runs, he’d got a little bit bored and I said to Sean it was probably time for him to have a change of scenery.
"Thankfully Sean said he was happy to stick with me, we changed a few things at home but to think he could win the Stayers’ Hurdle at the fifth attempt was probably a stretch, but he’s been a superstar for all of us in the yard."
Dan Skelton said of Kabral Du Mathan, who weakened into fourth place: "I’m sure he traded very short in running and I’m sure everyone thought he looked like winning, but you don’t know over three miles until you get it.
"That was a question mark beforehand, I felt in my heart he would stay, but he’s just hit that stamina wall that can happen and it wasn’t an impossibility of that happening.
"After the Relkeel I wondered if Aintree was a more appropriate target, but then as this race has turned up on decent ground and we didn’t go to Fontwell for the National Spirit, all these things led to us being here and you can see what good form he’s in – we haven’t done the wrong thing running him as he’s in awesome form.
"He’s a Grade Two winner and we’d like to have another go at a Grade One, but it would feel inappropriate to run him again this season after that. I’ve always been very conscious that this horse is six years old and we have to do the right thing by him."
Last year’s winner Bob Olinger finished an honourable third in defence of his crown.
Trainer Henry de Bromhead said: "Darragh (O’Keeffe) was brilliant on him. Fair play to the winner – he’s beaten us a few times and was unlucky to fall in the race last year.
