The two-mile and one-furlong Listed event, rescheduled from Kempton Park, had been billed as one of the strongest hurdle races ever staged at the Cumbria venue, with former Champion Hurdle heroine in the line-up alongside Paul Nicholls' prolific Rubaud and the Dan Skelton-trained Mirabad, who was a Grade 1 winner over fences at Aintree's Grand National meeting in April.

They all played their part to some extent but it was March's County Hurdle hero Wilful (3/1) who emerged on top under Jonjo O'Neill junior, holding off the late thrust of 9/2 shot Mirabad to score by three-quarters of a length, with 11/4 favourite Golden Ace back in third.

Rubaud took the six runners along through the early stages, followed by Golden Ace and Wilful as Burdett Road and Mirabad occupied the final two places in the field.

Golden Ace came to tackle the front-runner two out and was in front at the final obstacles but Wilful soon had her measure and stuck to his task well in the closing stages towards the far side rail despite Mirabad coming with a promising late run on the outside.

Wilful's joint-trainer A J O'Neill said on Racing TV: "It's satisfaction and excitement, he's been a fantastic horse and was obviously very progressive all the way through last season. It's great to see him starting on the same form that he left last season on.

"It was a competitive race today, some very decent horses and Grade 1 winners in behind, so I'm just delighted he's managed to get the season off to a good start and hopefully he can press on from there.

"He was just a fantastic improver all last season. He's a special little horse."

The Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle is set to be Wilful's big early-season target.

"Every horse is entitled to come on a little bit from their first run, how much we'll have to wait and see how he goes at home. We were definitely excited to get him on the track and full credit to the BHA and the Jockey Club to get this race back on as it's important to have a conditions race in October for two-mile hurdlers ahead of something like a Fighting Fifth next month. It's a fantastic preparatory race for something like that.

"We'd like to aim him for there, we'll wait to see how he comes out of this but it looks like a suitable sort of target."

Wilful was cut to 33/1 from 66/1 by Paddy Power, Sky Bet and Betfair for the Unibet Champion Hurdle next March.

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