With the Grand National itself now less than a fortnight away, Donald McCain and Jason Maguire warmed up for the world's most famous steeplechase as Chamirey landed the Sean Magee's Full Set Durham National at Sedgefield.
The pair can look forward to Ballabriggs defending his title at Aintree on Saturday week and they combined to take a far less prestigious, but just as attritional National in atrocious conditions.
The ground was officially described as good at the start of the day but a couple of hours later, the course had been lashed by rain, wind, hail and snow, leaving just six runners to go to post in the feature event.
Maguire sensibly set a sedate pace before moving things up a gear heading down the back straight for the final time, and the 13-2 chance soon had his opponents toiling in the mud before safely negotiating the final couple of obstacles to secure an 18-length verdict over Bellflower Boy.
McCain said: "He went to Enda Bolger for a go at cross-country racing for a while but it wasn't really his thing, so I bought him back. The ground has come right for him as while he handles decent ground all right, he loves it when it's really testing and he's obviously enjoyed himself today. It's nice to see him win again."
Success in the feature event was the second leg of a double for McCain and Maguire after Saga De Tercey toughed it out to complete a hat-trick of victories in the SAFC Foundation Novices' Hurdle. The 8-11 favourite made all the running and held off the challenge of Walser by a neck.
The brace takes Maguire's seasonal tally to 138, leaving him four winners behind Richard Johnson in the race to finish second to Tony McCoy in the jockeys' standings, and he said: "It's nice to have another winner and I'll just keep my head down and keep working and see where we end up."
Positive tactics also paid dividends on Kealigolane as he justified 7-2 favouritism in the John Wade Waste Recycling Novices' Handicap Hurdle Final. Barry Murtagh's recent Haydock winner made every post a winning one in the hands of Lucy Alexander, making light of the testing ground to score by 14 lengths.
Alexander said: "With the wind and rain it's pretty tough conditions out there, but it's nice to have a winner and this is a nice prize." She then completed a double, guiding Ann Hamilton's late arrival Fred Bojangals (8-1) to success in the digibet.com Handicap Chase.
Hamilton said: "We had blizzards up in Newcastle and I didn't think we were going to get here, it was touch and go. It was worth it in the end, I just hope we can get home now!"
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